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THOSE ARE OUR GUNS THAT SOUND SO CLOSE 



CAPTAIN LUCY 
IN FRANCE 

BY 

ALINE HAVARD 

tl 

Author of 

“CAPTAIN LUCY AND LIEUTENANT BOB” 



Illustrated by 

RALPH* P, -COLEMAN 

• • 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY 
1919 




COPYRIGHT 
1919 BY 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 




Captain Lucy in France 

SEP -2 Iyi9 


©CI.A5297a4 

/. 


Introduction 


To those who made friends with Lucy Gordon 
on Governor’s Island it will seem a great change 
to find her, in this second story, so far away from 
home. She is only one of thousands, though, to 
whom a few months of the great war brought more 
changes than they ever thought could be crowded 
into a lifetime. 

Lucy can look back over less than a year to her 
old life at the army post in New York Harbor be- 
fore the Colonel was ordered overseas. To that 
brief summer time when the Gordon famih^ was 
united during her brother Bob’s West Point 
graduation leave, and to the dark days of the 
winter of 1917 when Bob was in a German prison. 

Even then Lucy never lost hope, and her brave 
confidence was gloriously rewarded with Bob’s 
freedom. But in those dreadful weeks of waiting 
she outgrew her childhood, as though even in that 
pleasant home on Governor’s Island she knew that 
peace and content could never come back to her 
and to those she loved until America had fired her 
final shot at Germany’s crumbling lines. 

She could not guess what lay before her, — what 
3 


INTRODUCTION 


old friends she was to meet again in strange new 
places. Yet she had resolved, even before she had 
any hope of crossing to the other side, that, come 
what might, she would serve in her own way as 
steadfastly as her father served, as valiantly as Bob, 


4 


Contents 


I. 

The Summons 




9 

II. 

On the Allied Front 




34 

III. 

A Glimpse of Bob 




56 

IV. 

The Fortune of War 




82 

V. 

The English Prisoner 




97 

VI. 

A German Ally . 




115 

VII. 

Bob Gordon and Captain Beattie 



141 

VIII. 

A Little French Heroine . 




170 

IX. 

The Fight Over Argenton 




194 

X. 

The Plan of the Defenses 




216 

XI. 

A Chance in a Thousand . 




235 

XII. 

Mrs. Gordon and Bob 




261 

XIII. 

The Price of Victory 




281 

XIV. 

A Desperate Resolve . 




302 

XV. 

Across the Lines . 




326 

XVI. 

The Yanks Are Coming 


• 

. 

356 


5 



Illustrations 


PAGB 


“Those Are Our Guns That Sound So 
Close ” ..... 

“This Meadow Is the Best Landing-Place” 

“ Who’s That With You ? ” . 

“What’s Your Business Here?* . 

She Approached the Chimney 


. Frontispiece 

• 77 

. 145 

• 253 

• • 336 


Captain Lucy in Franc® 



Captain Lucy in France 


CHAPTER I 

THE SUMMONS 

“ The really nice part about doing hard work is 
that you feel so happy when you’ve left off,” re- 
marked Janet Leslie, stretching her lazy length on 
the shady grass with arms beneath her head. “ Lie 
down again, Lucy. We have still half an hour to 
rest.” 

“ I’m not tired. I haven’t worked as hard as 
you and Edith, because I stopped to read Bob’s 
letter,” said Lucy Gordon, turning toward the 
other girl of the trio, who was likewise lying on the 
grass, her heavy pigtail fallen across one sunburned 
cheek. 

“ U-h! ” grunted Edith Morris with closed eye- 
lids. ‘‘ That last row of beans was almost too much 
for me. Gardening isn’t my strong point. I’d 
rather be junior hospital aide all day.” 

9 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Lucy’s hazel eyes wandered from her two com- 
panions across the wide, level stretch of green, lit 
by the noonday sun, to where the light, spring 
shadows of the oak groves checkered its edges. 
The smooth turf was all cut up into a dozen big 
truck-gardens. With reckless disregard of the 
beautiful velvet lawn, busy hands had plowed and 
planted, until everywhere were springing up young 
corn and beans, peas, lentils and potato plants. 
Mr. Arthur Leslie’s big estate was given up to 
raising food for hungry mouths, and this little 
corner of it showed but a part of the changes that 
had come to Highland House since the beginning 
of the war. 

It was the second week of May, 1918, and Lucy 
Gordon was in England. Though only a few 
miles from London, this quiet countryside seemed 
very peaceful, but that was only when you looked 
up at the clear, bright sky, or across the green fields. 
To watch the people at their daily tasks was to see 
that not one of them, from school children to old 
men and women, was for one moment idle, or for- 
getful of the burden each had to share. Certainly 
Lucy could not forget it, but she often thanked the 
constant work for the distraction it gave her 
anxious thoughts. It was two months since her 
father, now Colonel Gordon, had been ordered from 
his home station at Governor’s Island, in New York 

lO 


THE SUMMONS 


Harbor, to the western front. His departure had 
followed quickly her brother Bob’s convalescence 
after his German captivity, and on top of it had 
come her mother’s decision to put her knowledge of 
the care of the sick and of children to some use in 
the country which held her son and husband. Six 
weeks ago Mrs. Gordon had sailed to join English 
and American workers in the reclaimed French 
villages behind the lines, and with her had gone 
Lucy, after coimtless prayers to her mother, as well 
as to Mr. Leslie, her kind and sympathetic Cousin 
Henry, to be allowed to accept her English cousins’ 
invitation and remain as near as she could to her 
family. 

“ I’ll take care of her, Sally, — let her come,” Mr. 
Leslie had begged for her in those last, hurried days 
at Governor’s Island. “Arthur Leslie^s girl will 
love to have her there, and it’s tough leaving her 
behind, even at your mother’s. I’ll be back and 
forth often from the Continent, you know, and can 
bring you news of each other.” For Mr. Leslie, 
giving up the active superintendence of his big 
lumber camps, had organized and equipped a Red 
Cross unit which he meant to accompany to the 
French front. In the end he had his way, and Mrs. 
Gordon, only too glad to have Lucy near her so 
long as she was safe, had given her consent. 

That was six weeks ago, and they had passed 

II 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


more quickly than any weeks in the fifteen years 
of Lucy’s life. For since coming to the beautiful 
Surrey home of her unknown English cousins, she 
had worked, like them, in almost every waking 
moment, and longed like them to do more, far more 
than was in their power, for the cause of the Allies. 

Presently Janet roused herself to say thought- 
fully, as she blinked up at the sun, “ It is harder for 
Lucy than for us, because her family are all away. 
Our brothers are gone, Edie, and my father, but we 
both have our mothers left — though Mum wants to 
join Cousin Sally this summer, Lucy, so perhaps 
we’ll be left alone. You know your mother wrote 
how few there are over there to help, and how many 
of those poor French children are without homes. 
I wish I were old enough to go.” 

Lucy’s eyes flashed instant response to her 
cousin’s words. In spite of her hard daily tasks 
her eager, restless spirit was still unsatisfied, and 
she dreamed, as in the year gone by, of greater and 
braver efforts. 

“ That’s so,” assented Edith, lazily opening her 
eyes, as she pondered Janet’s first words. “ Of 
course Janet is your cousin, but she’s Scotch and 
English, and you’re American. Is all your family 
in France, Lucy? ” 

“ No — there’s William,” said Lucy, smiling to 
herself as a little figure came before her mind’s eye 
12 


THE SUMMONS 


with the name. “ He’s my six-year-old brother, at 
my grandmother’s in Connecticut. But my father 
is with the A. E. F." So is Bob — in aviation — and 
Mother is behind the lines.” She sighed, but a 
quick realization of the truth made her add more 
cheerfully, “ Still, it’s a lot to be as near to them as 
I am.” 

“ I should think so! ” exclaimed Janet, sitting up 
with a sudden return of energy at sight of a quick 
moving figure among the gardens. ‘‘ Think if 
you’d been left way off in America.” She turned 
to her cousin as she spoke with a look of real under- 
standing, for already frank, generous Janet felt a 
warm friendship for the courageous little Amer- 
ican, and found in Lucy no less a devotion than her 
own to the Allies’ cause. “Here comes Mary Lee,” 
she said, nodding toward the advancing figure of a 
tall girl of eighteen, dressed, like themselves, in 
khaki working suit. “ Time’s up, I guess.” 

The two rose quickly to their feet, and gathered 
up rakes and hoes. “ Time, Mary? ” asked Edith, 
lingering for a final stretch. “ It seems about ten 
minutes to-day since we came out from luncheon.” 

“ It’s a whole hour, lazybones,” said Mary Lee, 
smiling as she showed the watch on her tanned 
wrist. “ I want you three to finish hoeing the corn 
over here, if you will.” 

* American Expedition to France. 

13 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


With no great enthusiasm but with obedient 
alacrity, the young farm-hands shouldered their 
hoes and walked off across the grass, for the Junior 
War Workers were imder orders, and submitted 
like good soldiers to discipline. For days after her 
arrival in England Lucy had marveled at the 
organization which had marshaled thousands of 
schoolboys and schoolgirls in efficient squads, under 
the direction of their elders, and told them off for 
countless duties throughout the land. Since she 
herself became a member of the army of war work- 
ers she had gardened for endless hot, weary, satis- 
fying hours. She had mended linen and sewed on 
buttons in the wardrobe room of the near-by base 
hospital, and had canvassed the countryside with 
Janet in the little donkey-cart, for eggs and other 
delicacies promised for the sick and wounded. It 
was extraordinary the amount of work that could 
be got, at no great hardship, from one willing and 
active girl; and when the three got together it really 
seemed as though they accomplished something, in 
spite of all Lucy’s unsatisfied longings. 

It was four o’clock, and the sun had commenced 
to throw long shadows from the oak trees on the 
grass, when Mary Lee called to the dozen girls, 
busy here and there among the gardens, to stop 
work for the day. 

“Phew!” breathed Janet, pushing back the 


THE SUMMONS 


thick, dark hair from her hot face, and stepping 
gingerly along the well cultivated row of tiny green 
shoots. “ I know what I’m going to do. I’m 
going in to lie down on my sofa, and just be per- 
fectly worthless until it’s time for tea. Perhaps 
I’ll play with the kitten, but nothing more strenu- 
ous.” 

Lucy said nothing, but inwardly she knew what 
she should do. At the noon rest she had only 
skimmed over Bob’s letter, and now it fairly burned 
the pocket of her khaki blouse. She had not seen 
her brother since they said good-bye on the Gov- 
ernor’s Island dock in September, 1917. She 
shouldered her hoe and followed quickly in her 
cousin’s footsteps, waving to Edith, who had started 
homeward through the grove as Lucy and Janet set 
off toward the house. 

Half an hour later, bathed and free from clinging 
chunks of Surrey earth, Lucy was sitting in the 
window-seat of her bedroom in the beautiful old 
house, beside the diamond-paned bay window. 
Her soft, fair hair was smoothly brushed and 
tied with a black ribbon, and her khaki uniform 
changed for a blue linen dress. With a sigh of 
satisfaction she took Bob’s hastily written letter 
from its envelope and settled back among the 
cushions to read. 


15 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ Dear old Lucy: 

“ Hope you are not too homesick for the 
U. S. A. It's no use, so cheer up and do all you 
can to help. But I Imow there’s no need to tell 
you that, 

“ I am as well as possible, and, as you may 
imagine, frightfully busy since the Boches began 
their last big slugging at our lines. I can’t tell 
you where I am, but it is, I’m sorry to say, nowhere 
near Mother or Dad, so I haven’t seen either of 
them for a month. I hope you got my last letter 
telling the good news that I brought down my first 
German plane. I am a full-fledged pilot at last, 
and a first lieutenant, with some sweet little Nieu- 
ports of my own that can do wonders in the air. 
Cousin Henry watched me fly the other day. His 
work brought him near here last week, and he gave 
me news of Mother, which I was awfully glad to 
get. Transportation in these parts is pretty 
crowded just now and letters come through slowly. 
I shouldn’t be surprised if you heard from her 
oftener than I do. Cousin Henry, like the trump 
he is, is working for all he’s worth. Time and 
money are nothing for him to give where they will 
help, and I wish I could write you some of the fine 
things he has done. I didn’t see him long, for we 
are on pretty constant duty now, and most of my 
outlook lately consists of German trenches seen 
eight thousand feet below me, with shrapnel spout- 
ing up from them like fireworks. I float around 
among the clouds and keep out of reach, while my 
observer makes liis maps or gets his little machine 

i6 


THE SUMMONS 

gun ready if the German taubes come buzzing too 
near/’ 

“ Out of reach,” Lucy murmured, with a quick 
frown. “Not if I know him!” and a worried 
wrinkle persisted on her forehead as she turned to 
the last page. 

“ The Yanks are doing their good little bit on 
the battle line. I wish there were more of us, but 
we’re not to be desj)ised. Fritz doesn’t seem to 
think so, anyway, from the bombing he gives our 
trenches whenever our Allies give him a little 
respite. F ather’s regiment did a fine x^iece of work 
the other day near you loiow where. I can’t write 
more definitely now, but he, with a number of his 
officers, was recommended for decoration by the 
French divisional commander.” 

Lucy’s forehead cleared a little over this, and her 
serious eyes brightened as she read the words. Bob 
had only written a few lines more: 

“ I know you like the Leslies. If they are 
Cousin Henry’s sort you couldn’t help it. J anet’s 
brother Arthur is not far from here, and I intend 
to meet him as soon as we can manage it. I saw 
him last when I was ten and he was about seven- 
teen. I haven’t a second more to write, so good- 
bye. Love and best wishes from 

“ Yours as ever, 

“ Bob.” 


17 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“Lucy!” called Janet’s soft voice outside the 
door, after half an hour had stolen by. “Aren’t 
you coming do^vn to tea? ” 

Lucy sat up and recalled her thoughts from 
where Bob’s letter had led them, and her eyes from 
the darkening fields and woods beyond the leaded 
panes. 

“ I’m coming, Janet,” she answered, putting 
back the letter in its envelope and rising swiftly 
from the window-seat. 

Lucy seldom indulged now in the reveries she 
had once been so fond of. They were too apt to 
become sad ones, and she wanted only to follow the 
example of her cousins and do each day’s work 
cheerfully. Rebellious moments came, and this last 
half hour had been one of them, when nothing 
seemed to matter but the endless salt waves that 
separated her from all she loved the best. But 
Lucy had gained stores of both patience and cour- 
age since that dark day in December of the year 
before when Bob had been reported missing. 

She went out of her room and ran down the wide 
staircase to the floor below. The big, many-win- 
dowed drawing-room on the right had most of the 
furniture removed or pushed close to the wall to 
make place for bales of gauze and muslin, for 
Highland House was the headquarters of the dis- 
trict Red Cross Chapter. Beyond the drawing- 
18 


THE SUMMONS 


room was the library, and there a table at one side 
was set with kettle and teacups, and the jingle of 
china and silver sounded from the doorway. 

“ Here I am. Cousin Janet. I hope you’ve kept 
a muffin for me? ” said Lucy, looking inquiringly 
at the table and at the small, bright-eyed lady who 
presided at it with quick-moving fingers. 

“ Of course we have,” declared Mrs. Leslie with 
a nod and smile, as she handed Lucy a cup of hot 
milk and water, with a dash of tea in it. 

“ We’ve kept two, even,” said Janet, pointing 
to the muffin plate from her lazy seat in a big chair. 
“ It’s wonderful what an appetite hoeing corn gives 
one — even for war rations.” 

“ I don’t think I’ll ever again complain of food 
at home,” sighed Lucy as she sank into a chair. 
She had learned some lessons about the value of a 
hearty meal during those eight weeks in England. 
There was enough to eat at Highland House, 
but it was simple food, limited to each one’s 
needs. 

“ This looks wonderful,” she added, carefully 
spreading the hot, split muffin with a slender share 
of margarine, for butter was an unknown luxmy 
outside the hospitals. 

“ That must have been a long letter you had from 
Bob,” remarked Janet, searching her cousin’s face 
for signs of unusual worry or homesickness, after 
19 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


her hour’s seclusion. ‘‘ But perhaj)s you weren’t 
reading it much of the time? ” 

“No, I wasn’t,” said Lucy. “ I was thinking 
about — oh, you know — all sorts of things. But 
everything Bob wrote was pretty good news. He’s 
a i^ilot, as he told me last week, and doing the work 
he loves to do. He spoke of seeing Arthur very 
soon, as they’re not far apart.” 

“ Then he’s near Cantigny,” said Mrs. Leslie 
quickly, “for that’s where Arthur is now.” 

At mention of her eldest son she flushed a little, 
chiefly with j)ride, but that feeling was always 
mixed with fear, and more than ever now, since the 
opening of the great offensive. Arthur Leslie had 
served for over three years, had received four 
wounds, and had been decorated with the Victoria 
Cross and the Croix de Guerre. In his mother’s 
anxious thoughts it seemed almost too much to hope 
that he should be longer spared. 

Lucy glanced up at Mrs. Leslie’s face, in that 
moment when her thoughts were far away from the 
tea-table and the cheerful room, thinking as she 
had often done before, how gay and merry Cousin 
Janet must have been in the hapi^y days before the 
war. She was cheerful still, in spite of the daily 
crushing weight upon her, but her lips were close 
set, and her dark eyes had a sad earnestness behind 
their glancing brightness. “ Two sons and her 
20 


THE SUMMONS 


husband,” Lucy thought. “ That’s one more tlian 
Mother has to worry for.” 

“ Come, children,” Mrs. Leslie said, rousing her- 
self after a moment. “ Let’s go in and get the 
gauze cut and arranged for to-morrow’s work. I 
expect a good many will be here.” 

The two girls rose obediently, and as they did so, 
the ring of the front door-bell sounded through the 
house. 

‘‘ Perhaps that’s some one come to helj) us,” sug- 
gested Janet, while her mother, putting behind her 
the ever-present dread of a telegram from the War 
Office, said: 

“ More likely it’s old Mrs. Fry with those eggs 
she j)romised to collect for me.” 

She turned as she spoke to learn from the servant 
who the visitor was. The newcomer, however, did 
not wait for announcement, but came straight on, 
and in another moment Mr. Henry Leslie walked 
into the room. 

“ Cousin Henry! ” cried Lucy and Janet in one 
amazed breath. 

He carried his hat and gloves still in his hancb 
and his kind, bright face was heavily marked with 
weariness and anxiety. 

“ Your boys were both well, J anet — ^Arthur too,” 
were his first words as he met Mrs. Leslie’s eyes. 

“ You’re not on leave again so soon? ” Lucy 
21 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


faltered, and as she spoke a dreadful fear clutched 
at her heart and she caught tight hold of Janet’s 
shoulder as she stood beside her. 

“ Only for two days,” was Mr. Leslie’s still un- 
smiling answer, and as Lucy’s frightened eyes 
searched his he reached out for her hand and took 
it in a warm clasp. 

“ Let me speak to this child a minute, Janet,” 
he said to Mrs. Leslie, and the next moment she 
and J anet had left the room and Lucy was staring 
pale and trembling into his face. 

“ Mother — Father — Bob,” were the thoughts 
that whirled through her brain. 

“ Yes, Lucy dear, I have bad news for you,” said 
Mr. Leslie in answer to that unspoken question. 
“ Bob is safe, thank God, but your father is seri- 
ously wounded. Now be brave, little girl,” he 
added as Lucy’s hand grew cold beneath his clasp. 
Leading her to a chair he made her sit down and 
knelt beside her. “ Listen to every word I say, 
for I can’t waste a moment.” 

The awful dizziness in Lucy’s brain seemed to 
subside a little. In a dazed sort of calmness she 
forced herself to listen. 

“ Your mother is only twenty miles away from 
him, but that stretch of twenty miles is impassable 
just now. There are not trains enough to carry 
shells and reinforcements to our hard pressed 
22 


THE SUMMONS 


trenches, and Bob, farther up the line, where the 
press is hardest on the American front, cannot 
desert his post. Your father wants most awfully 
to see one of you, and you are the only one I can 
reach now. I’ve got permission where it seemed im- 
possible. I’m going to take you to him to-night.” 

There was not the slightest doubt of Lucy’s con- 
sent in Mr. Leslie’s words, and there was no longer 
any fear or shrinking in the hazel eyes from which 
Lucy shook the tears before she met his gaze. 
While he spoke she had buried her face in her 
hands, and the promise, made when Bob came out 
of German captivity, never again to give way to 
despair, seemed suddenly very hard to keep. But 
she stopped trembling and sat erect. For months 
she had breathed the atmosphere of brave endur- 
ance. Now the thought uppermost in her mind 
was this, “ I must think only of Father. How we 
can get to him most quickly.” Aloud she asked, 
“ When do we start. Cousin Henry? ” 

“You’re a brick!” said Mr. Leslie, but under 
his breath, for his own voice would not obey him 
just then, at sight of Lucy’s pale and tear-stained 
face. He managed to say, “ We must leave here 
by seven o’clock.” 

The next two hours seemed all one hurried flight 
to Lucy, with dinner forced upon her, which she 
choked down somehow, and Cousin Henry and 

23 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Janet hovering about her with hopeful words and 
tender, sympathetic hands, and eyes that would fill 
up with tears in spite of them. Then hurried fare- 
wells, and the train that drew up in the gloom of 
the little station. After that came the long ride to 
Dover. It was not more than a few hours, but to 
Lucy it was endless. 

It seemed to her that days already had gone by, 
when in the darkness of the first hours of the morn- 
ing she felt beneath her feet the gangway of the 
ship that was to carry them across the channel. 
And here for a moment she forgot her surroundings 
and stood on the wind-swept deck, silent and 
motionless. All at once she seemed to have come 
very close to the gTeat battle-field, for, borne 
through the misty darkness, she heard, for the first 
time clearly audible, the distant thunder of the 
guns. 

The water was whipped into choppy waves by 
the shifting wind, and Lucy, standing by the cabin 
window at Mr. Leslie’s side, saw the dim lights of 
Dover bob up and down as the ship got under way. 
The cabin and decks were crowded with people, 
officers and men returning to duty from brief leaves 
at home, as well as a number of nurses and women 
war workers of various kinds. More than one of 
these cast a friendly, pitying glance in Lucy’s direc- 
tion, but they were strangers to her, and she could 

24 


THE SUMMONS 


not so much as return their smiles just then. The 
courage she had so resolutely summoned up at 
Highland House was fast sinking. She dropped 
do^m in the chair Mr. Leslie offered her in a 
secluded corner, and, sheltered by the darkness 
enforced by lurking submarines, buried her face in 
her hands and cried until the tears ran down be- 
tween her fingers. Mr. Leslie let her alone for a 
while, but presently she felt his arm steal about her 
shaking shoulders, and raising her wet face she 
faltered, suddenly ashamed, “ I guess I’m a coward, 
Cousin Henry, but I couldn’t help it.” 

“ I guess you’re not a coward,” was the quick 
answer, and, as he had done months before, the day 
he promised to go in search of Bob in prison, Mr. 
Leslie sat silent and patted his little cousin’s shoul- 
der, with a tender, comforting hand. His thoughts 
went back to his own little daughter, whom Lucy’s 
unselfish care and comradeship had restored to 
health and strength. “ It isn’t always easy to be 
brave, Lucy,” he said at last, “ not for the bravest 
of us.” 

Gradually Lucy dried her tears, and, tired out 
now almost beyond the power to think, she leaned 
back in her chair and fell half asleep. But even in 
her dreams her father’s face appeared before her. 
She could see plainly his clear gray eyes and 
bronzed cheeks. She saw him again as he stood on 

25 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


the Governor’s Island dock, the day he left to join 
his regiment, — tall and soldierly, in the uniform 
which always seemed a part of himself, and which 
he had worn for twenty-five years. The dream was 
almost a reassuring one, even when she woke, for it 
seemed somehow as though her father must still be 
determined and confident. But on top of this came 
the bitter certainty that when Mr. Leslie had said, 
“ He wants most awfully to see one of you,” he 
had shrunk from adding “ before he dies.” 

At last she made up her mind to ask the question 
until now evaded. 

“ Where is Father wounded. Cousin Henry? ” 
she whispered. 

He received a bullet through the lungs. His 
regiment pushed ahead five hundred yards, against 
heavy odds, and took the enemy’s trenches.” Mr. 
Leslie bent down toward his little cousin as he 
spoke, but a slow nod was her only answer. 

At daybreak Calais was but a few miles distant. 
Lucy went into a cabin to wash her tear-stained 
face, and returning to Mr. Leslie’s side was per- 
suaded to eat a sandwich and drink a glass of milk. 
The precautions observed during the crossing were 
cast aside, and with the French coast in plain sight 
beyond a narrow blue stretch of water, tramping 
feet filled the decks, and windlasses began hauling 
goods up from the crowded hold. 

26 


THE SUMMONS 


An hour later, after interviews in which Mr. 
Leslie showed his papers half a dozen times over to 
curious officials, he and Lucy walked down the 
gangway onto the quay. 

“France!” flashed across Lucy’s tired mind, 
with even then a thrill, as slowly her eyes wandered 
over the varied crowd of officers and men, French, 
British and Americans, intent on landing and get- 
ting their effects ashore, while stores were lowered 
after them onto the docks. American soldiers in 
campaign hats not yet exchanged for the steel hel- 
mets, French guards with vigilant eyes on every- 
thing around them, British officers and Tommies, 
with here and there a big Highlander in kilt and 
bonnet — all hurried about their business, shouting 
what must be said in tones loud enough to rise 
above the clamor, to which the continuous firing 
from the front made a dull rumble of accompani- 
ment. 

It was a wonderful picture, but it all seemed 
strange and indistinct to Lucy at that moment. 
Her mind was too oppressed with grief to have a 
keen realization of what was going on around her. 
Mechanically she followed her cousin’s lead, and 
found herself in a motor-bus bound for the Calais 
station. Half a dozen English and as many Amer- 
ican officers shared the crowded seats. The Ameri- 
cans were strangers to her, and she was glad of it. 

27 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


The ride was short, and then, after an hour’s 
wait, they were on board a train again, still crowded 
in with soldiers and war workers. Mr. Leslie 
urged Lucy to try to sleep a little, but she could 
not. The guns were like thunder in the first mutter 
of an axDproaching storm, and they were nearing the 
storm every moment. About her sounded shouting 
voices as the slow train moved on, with frequent 
jolting stops and whistled signals. 

Beyond the windows a lovely spring sun shone 
down on the French fields and orchards, and as the 
train followed the French coast line toward 
Boulogne, her tired eyes brightened at sight of the 
lovely scene unfolding on every side. 

Here was France unconquered, undesxDoiled, still 
in the beauty of its springtime, as in the days of 
peace. The guns pounded at its doors and troo^)- 
trains i)assed and repassed endlessly to its defense 
through a world of green meadows and ax)ple blos- 
soms. Women and children thronged the fields, 
hard at work cultivating the ripening crops. They 
stox3ped to wave friendly greetings to the soldiers 
in the train. Near every red-roofed farmhouse 
grew a little orchard, laden with iDink and fragrant- 
smelling blossoms. Through the open windows 
Lucy caught whiffs of the sweet air, and, closing 
her eyes a moment, could not believe she was near- 
ing the great battle-field. 

28 


THE SUMMONS 

After an hour they left the countryside behind 
to enter Boulogne, and in the noise and confusion 
of the big station Mr. Leslie insisted on Lucy’s 
getting do^vn with him for something to eat. It 
was a hurried meal, taken among a crowd of travel- 
ing ofBcex’s and soldiers, for the train made only a 
short stoj). 

“A quarter of our journey is over,” Mr. Leslie 
told her, trying to put a little hopeful encourage- 
ment into his voice, when they had started on their 
way again. 

Only a day ago, Lucy thought, as head on hand 
she stared out at the flowery meadows, while the 
train continued its slow way south, this journey 
had held for her all that was marvelous and un- 
obtainable. In fancy she had made it more than 
once, with quickening breath and beating heart. 
To be in France — heroic France — nearing the very 
field over which Bob had flown so boldly, the land 
where the hard-pressed Allies stood undaunted. 
But now she no longer looked with pleasure at that 
lovely landscape outside the window. She was in 
a strange, far country; America was thousands of 
watery miles away, and her father lay woimded — 
alone, and wanting her. The train seemed a cruel 
tyrant as it lagged along, and she saw nothing but 
her father’s face, then her mother’s, tired and de- 
spairing, fixDin where she vainly sought to reach him. 

29 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


It was after a long morning’s travel that Mr. 
Leslie pointed out the majestic walls of Amiens 
Cathedral above the distant town. Lucy nodded 
silently, her eyes upon the noble beauty of it, but 
her mind wandering eastward beyond. The noise 
of the guns, until now merged into one muffled 
roar, seemed all at once to break apart into a hun- 
dred mighty voices. Overpowered with a terrible 
sense of dread she clasped Mr. Leslie’s hand for 
comfort, and felt it close over hers with a kind, un- 
derstanding pressure. 

“Are we almost there? ” she asked faintly. 

“ Only an hour more, when we’ve passed 
Amiens,” was the hopeful answer. “ Then a short 
ride in whatever we can find to pick us up, and we’ll 
be in the town. It’s Chateau-Plessis — taken from 
the Boches only two days ago — so communications 
are at loose ends just now. Hold on a little longer, 
dear — you’ve been such a trump all day.” 

Lucy nodded dully, half deafened by the guns. 

They were crashing out in one tremendous thun- 
dering volley, till the tearing din struck on Lucy’s 
ears and made them ring and tingle, while she 
shrank back more than once as from a blow, when 
two hours later they entered the paved streets of 
Chateau-Plessis. The motor-lorry, which had made 
a difficult way among the heaps of broken stone, 
dropped them before the old town hall, over which 
30 


THE SUMMONS 


the Red Crass flag now floated. Mr. Leslie took 
Lucy’s arm and led her up the wide stone steps. 
A nurse came forward, and some men in uniform, 
but Lucy hardly saw them. They entered a great, 
many-windowed hall which had once been a court 
of justice, but now was a crowded ward, filled to 
overflowing with cots on which lay wounded men. 
On the floor lay more men, on blankets or mat- 
tresses, and between them stepped nurses and order- 
lies, intent and earnest, without time to so much as 
lift their tired e3’^es at sight of the newcomers. A 
surgeon had exchanged a few quick words with Mr. 
Leslie, and now he led the way to a door some dis- 
tance down the ward. This door he opened, and 
after glancing inside the room, made Lucy a silent 
sign to enter. 

Lucy was trembling from head to foot as she 
crossed the threshold. The hand that clutched at 
Mr. Leslie’s left red marks across his fingers. But 
she fought desperately to hide her fear as she raised 
her eyes to face the nurse who came forward from 
beside the cot at one end of the little room. She 
might have spared herself that effort at self-control 
made for her father’s sake. Colonel Gordon lay 
motionless upon the pillows, his sun-tanned cheeks 
not quite hiding the deadly pallor of his face. His 
breathing was quick and labored and his eyes were 
closed. But when Tjucy knelt beside him and, for- 

31 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


getting all else around her, caught his responseless 
hand in hers, for a second his lids quivered and 
parted and the wide gray eyes looked into hers. 
Then the lids fluttered down again, and behind her 
she heard the surgeon, si)eaking loud against the 
roar of the guns, say, “ He will hardly know her 
now. He’s but half conscious.” 

Lucy bent her head over her father’s hand, and 
the tears, so long restrained, poured down her 
cheeks in a warm, salty shower. Sobs choked her, 
but she forced them back, or buried them in the 
blanket’s woolly folds. Then the hand she held 
stirred slowly in her clasp, and at the same time she 
felt a soft touch upon her tumbled hair. In- 
credulous, she raised her head, winking away the 
tears, and saw her father’s eyes flxed full upon her. 
Puzzled and uncertain, dimmed with pain, they met 
her eager, longing gaze, but recognition was some- 
where in their depths. 

“ Lucy — you? ” he murmured, and while Lucy, 
at the faint smile that touched his weary face, 
struggled for power to answer him, he added 
clearly, “ Poor little girl ! I wanted so to see you. 
It was hard for you — this journey.” His smile 
had faded to a frown of pain, but his hold on Lucy’s 
hand did not relax, and she, suddenly by some help 
outside of herself grown strong again, bent down 
and spoke close to his ear. 

32 


THE SUMMONS 

“ I didn’t mind it, Father! I couldn’t leave you 
here to get well all alone.” Could it really be her 
old cheerful voice that spoke for her — the voice she 
had thought never to hear again? She smiled into 
the wondering eyes once more upraised to hers and 
went on confidently: “ You’re going to get well, 
Father dear, you know. That old bullet in the 
Spanish War didn’t get you, and neither will this 
one. I know it — the way I Imew that Bob was 
coming back, even when the Germans had him.” 

Was it hope or only longing for life that touched 
with a new light the eyes until now so dim and 
sombre? The surgeon leaned forward, his gaze 
intently fixed on the wounded officer’s face. To 
Lucy’s brave and resolute heart it seemed an echo 
of her own prayers, as though her father felt al- 
ready what in her wakening confidence she so 
longed to make him feel — that he was not going to 
die. 


33 


CHAPTER II 

ON THE ALLIED FRONT 

“ You^re a good little nurse, Lucy Gordon! 
That’s the way to talk to a sick man,” said a strong, 
eager voice beside her, as Lucy left her father’s 
room at last, a long hour later. A tall young army 
surgeon, with bright blue eyes and ruddy, freckled 
face, had crossed the ward at sight of her. Lucy 
looked quickly up and for very astonishment her 
heart skipped a beat, while a slow smile lighted up 
her tired face. For an instant she was at home 
again on Governor’s Island, in that happy time 
when her family had all been together. Was it only 
two years since Captain Greyson had brought her 
through the measles — or was it a hundred years? 
Anyway he was a major now, from the leaves upon 
his shoulders. 

“ Was it you in there all the time? ” she asked 
dazedly. “ I never noticed.” 

“ That’s not surprising,” said the officer smiling. 
He took Lucy’s arm and led her through a door- 
way into a little ruined garden, lit by the afternoon 
34 


ON THE ALLIED FRONT 


sunlight. “Here’s a beneh; sit down until Miss 
Pearse brings you out something to eat.” 

Thankful beyond words for the presence of this 
old friend to care for her in her utter weariness, 
Lucy dropi)ed down upon the stone seat and looked 
again into Major Greyson’s face. “ I’m glad to 
see you,” she said simply. “Do you think — is there 

a chance ? ” She could get no further, her 

shaky voice half lost in the cannons’ roar, but Major 
Grey son bent down to catch her words. 

“ Yes, there is, and don’t stop for one moment 
thinking it,” was his swift answer, as he looked at 
Lucy with keen, honest eyes. “ There’s more of a 
chance since you talked with him than since he was 
wounded. There’s a tide in the succession of weary 
pain-racked days when nature needs hope and noth- 
ing else to keep up the battle, and, by Jove, you 
plucky little girl, you brought it! ” 

“ I won't cry again,” thought Lucy, fighting for 
self-control. She clenched her hands together with 
all her strength, while a solitary tear dropped down 
upon them. Major Grey son saw her struggle and, 
prompted by a heavy burst of firing from the 
French and American batteries in front of Chateau- 
Plessis, began to speak of the town’s capture. 

“ Things are still in poor shape here — hospitals 
and everything. You see, we’ve been in posses- 
sion only since Tuesday,” he said, glancing about 
35 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


the little garden, cluttered with fallen stones and 
rubbish, to where, through a gap in the battered 
wall, the half-ruined street showed beyond. “ We 
had a hard fight to get it but, strangely enough, in 
spite of the heavy bombardment, the place wasn’t 
deserted. Some of the inhabitants have simply 
stuck it out, German occupation and all. It takes 
a lot to drive these poor French peoi)le from their 
homes.” 

“ But weren’t lots of them killed? ” asked Lucy, 
amazed. 

“ Not those who hid in their houses at the further 
end of the town. It was the poor refugees trying 
to get out of the place between bombardments who 
suffered most. We are doing all we can for them. 
Mr. Leslie has worked night and day, I’m certain, 
since the opening of this last offensive.” 

“ But aren’t the German lines still very near? 
The guns soimd almost on top of us,” said Lucy, 
her voice grown scared and trembling again as a 
thunderous explosion hurt her ears. 

“ Oh, their lines are more than five miles away. 
Those are our guns that sound so close,” said Major 
Greyson reassuringly. He glanced over Lucy’s 
shoulder as he spoke, and gave a nod of satisfaction. 
“ Good for you. Miss Pearse,” he said. “ That’s 
just exactly what she needs. Here’s your break- 
fast and luncheon, Lucy, rolled into one.” 

36 


ON THE ALLIED FRONT 


A young Red Cross nurse, with brown hair curl- 
ing beneath her veil, and lips that smiled a pleasant 
welcome at the little newcomer, came quickly up 
with a full tray, which she set down upon the 
bench. 

“ ]\Iiss Pearse, here is Miss Lucy Gordon,” said 
Major Greyson, nodding in Lucy’s direction. 
“ Miss Pearse has j)romised to take a little bit of 
care of you, Lucy, if you’re not too big now to be 
taken care of.” 

“ Indeed I’m not,” Lucy protested, rising to 
hold out a friendly, grateful hand, which the young 
nurse took warmly, saying: 

“ Perhaps you won’t think I’m taking much care 
of you when you see what I’ve brought. Miss Gor- 
don. It isn’t even a lunch, but we’re rather hard 
up here.” 

“ Oh, I’m not particular,” smiled Lucy, thinking 
back a day to tea at Highland House, and to what 
she had thought hardship then. Now, she suddenly 
discovered that she was dying of hunger, at sight of 
the eggs and bread and the cup of chocolate on the 
little tray, when Miss Pearse uncovered the dishes. 

“ Sit down and eat it all,” urged Major Greyson. 
“ Your father is asleep and, anyway, I’m going 
back to him.” 

Lucy needed no more urging, and taking the tray 
upon her knees she ate the little meal with keen 
37 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


enjoyment, and a great feeling of returning 
strength in both mind and body. 

“ That’s better,” remarked Miss Pearse ten 
minutes later, when some of the healthy color had 
stolen back into Lucy’s pale cheeks. “ Now you 
don’t look like a ghost any more. Here’s your 
cousin coming to find you.” 

She pointed to the doorway from which Mr. 
Leslie was just coming out, and picked up the tray 
of empty dishes, saying, “ I’ll take these and go 
back, for you won’t be alone now.” 

“Don’t go far; how can I find you?” asked 
Lucy, anxiously clinging to this new friend in the 
sad strangeness of her surroundings. 

“ I shan’t be more than a hundred yards away,” 
smiled the girl, nodding toward the door leading to 
the big crowded ward, and taking up the tray she 
crossed the garden, stopping to point out to Mr. 
Leslie the bench where Lucy was. 

Mr. Leslie had been snatching a little of the sleep 
denied him for the past thirty-six hours, and now, 
almost rested, he looked better than when Lucy had 
first seen him at Highland House. Her spirits 
rose unaccountably at sight of his more cheerful 
face, as she made swift room for him on the seat 
beside her. 

“ Major Greyson said Father could get better,” 
were the eager words that came first to her lips. 
38 


ON THE ALLIED FRONT 


She scanned Mr. Leslie’s face for confirmation of 
her hopes, and found a part of what she sought in 
the slow nod with which he answered: 

“ Major Greyson wouldn’t have said it if it were 
not ime\ and, more than that, he told me he had 
hopes. Thank God I brought you, dear. Your 
father has been sleeping quietly ever sinee your 
visit. He longed so for some of you to come, and 
wondered in his fever where you were.” 

“ Oh, Cousin Henry,” Lucy cried, a desperate 
longing rising in her own heart, “ how many 
days before Mother can be here? Surely the trains 
must be running better now? ” 

“ They are running every minute of the day and 
night, but not just along her way, which is north- 
west. And mostly they are freight cars, crammed 
with men and munitions, being rushed to where they 
are most needed. You see, it’s hard to tell just 
when she can get here, for of the several telegrams 
I know she has sent only one reached me.” 

Lucy sat drearily silent. 

It won’t be many days, though, — I’m sure of 
that,” declared Mr. Leslie, speaking in a more 
hopeful tone after having put the facts frankly. 
“ Look for her any hour, and you may be just as 
right as I am. And now see here,” he added, rising 
from the bench and holding out his hand. “ I want 
you to come and get some sleep. You won’t be 
39 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


any good to your father if you are all worn out. 
Major Greyson says you may lie down in the 
nurses’ resting room off the ward. I promise to 
call you as soon as your father wakes.” 

Sunset was streaming through the narrow lancet- 
shaped windows of the room and gleaming on the 
old stone floor when Miss Pearse’s voice, calling to 
her, roused her from sleep. “ The Colonel is awake 
now,” she said, bending over the cot as Lucy rubbed 
her heavy eyes. 

Lucy sj)rang up, struggling to collect her 
thoughts, as she followed the nurse out of the room. 
She had fallen asleep almost as soon as her head 
had touched the pillow, and now awake again to 
the never-ending hammer of the guns upon her ears, 
she marveled at it. She smoothed back her hair, 
remembering dimly that she had not fixed it since 
that morning on the boat, and wondering how long 
before people living in a place like this could learn 
to get up and go to bed as though they lived through 
regular, peaceful hours. Miss Pearse looked as 
neat and calm as the young nurse who had taught 
the army girls first-aid on Governor’s Island, 
though her cheeks were flushed just now with weari- 
ness after a long, hard day. “ Come in,” she said 
to Lucy on the threshold of Colonel Gordon’s 
room. 

Lucy entered softly, for not yet had the useless- 
40 


ON THE ALLIED FRONT 


ness of quiet footsteps in the midst of thundering 
guns occurred to her, and went to her father’s side. 
His long sleep had lifted a little of the shadow from 
his pale face, but his breathing was still short and 
difficult, and his eyes were closed. Lucy’s heart 
sank miserably as she looked at him. Behind her 
Major Greyson entered, and kneeling beside the 
cot, clasped the wounded officer’s wrist, looking 
keenly into his face. 

“ Father,” said Lucy at last, her voice shaking in 
spite of all she could do, “ won’t you speak to me? ” 

Colonel Gordon stirred a little and opened his 
eyes. For a moment he was silent, then, as be- 
fore, a smile flickered over his set lips, and tak- 
ing a hard breath he murmured, “ Lucy — ^liere — 

where’s ?” The rest was lost as in sudden 

weakness he closed his eyes again and turned his 
face to the pillow. 

“ Where’s Mother, did you say? ” entreated 
Lucy, bending over him. “ She’s coming. Father, 
truly, she’ll soon be here!” But Colonel Gordon 
could not speak in answer this time. Only his hand, 
moving for a second toward Lucy’s arm, showed 
that he felt her presence. 

Lucy turned a despairing face to Major Grey- 
son, but his look of patient hopefulness had not 
changed. He motioned to her to leave her father’s 
side, and when, with a backward glance at that 

41 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


still figure on the cot, she had obeyed, he drew her 
outside the door and sj)oke as though answering 
her question. 

“ It’s all right; I didn’t expect any more. This 
is the worst time of the day for him. I still hope, 
and have every reason to think he is better to-day 
than yesterday.” 

“ Oh, Major Greyson,” Lucy faltered, vainly 
seeking to put her thoughts into words. 

The surgeon led her out again into the little 
garden, over which darkness had now begun to 
fall, unbrightened by lights from the sombre streets 
of the half-ruined town. Lucy looked up at the 
first twinkling stars in the clear sky, and they 
seemed the only familiar things in all that dreary 
cannon-racked desolation. 

You’re tired, poor little girl,” said Major 
Greyson, when a great sigh had fallen involun- 
tarily from Lucy’s lips. “ Miss Pearse is going 
to take you across the street to the house where the 
nurses sleep. You will be right by her, and I give 
you my word at the slightest change in your father 
you shall be sent for. You won’t be any good to- 
morrow if you don’t sleep to-night. Mr. Leslie is 
waiting in my room to have some supper with you 
now.” 

It was soon after eight o’clock when Lucy bade 
her Cousin Henry good-night and left the hospital 
42 


ON THE ALLIED FRONT 


in Miss Pearse’s charge. Mr. Leslie had done his 
generous best in the past hour to cheer her, but 
without success, though she had tried hard to re- 
sx:)ond to his kind eiforts. Her eyelids were like 
leaden weights, her brain seemed to have no thought 
nor feeling left in it, and she crossed the street, 
which was cluttered with stones and debris, stum- 
bling as she walked, and vaguely wondering if all 
this were true. Miss Pearse was very kind and 
helped the tired girl to bed with gentle hands and 
in understanding silence. But once in her narrow 
cot, in the room adjoining that in which Miss Pearse 
and another nurse slept, Lucy’s dulled mind amaz- 
ingly awoke and flashed before her pictures of 
eveiything she had seen and done in the past day 
and night. The pounding of the guns, which had 
become for a while an almost unnoticed part of her 
surroundings, seemed swelled to a horrible din that 
beat like hammers on her forehead, and not even 
with her head buried in the pillow could she And 
peace enough to sleep. 

For months afterward Lucy remembered that 
first night at Chateau-Plessis. The misery of her 
loneliness overwhelmed her as she lay there wide- 
eyed in the thundering darkness, beset by fears she 
vainly struggled to put aside, afraid to look back 
at what seemed peaceful days behind, or ahead, to 
what might come to-morrow. At last she could 
43 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


bear it no longer, and sitting up in bed she deter- 
mined to go and beg Miss Pearse’s company, tired 
though she knew the poor nurse must be after her 
long day’s work. But Miss Pearse had not quite 
forgotten the lonely little girl near her. Before 
Lucy had left her bed she heard some one at the 
door of her room, and a kind voice said, “ Lucy ! 
Can’t you sleep? I’m going to lie down on your 
bed beside you.” 

There was not much room, but Lucy made all she 
could, with a heart almost too grateful for speech, 
and her faltered thanks was lost in the roar of the 
cannon. With Miss Pearse dropping off to ex- 
hausted sleep at her side, the thoughts that had tor- 
mented her weary mind faded off into blankness. 
At last she fell asleep. 

When morning came Lucy opened her eyes and 
found she was alone. The sun shining onto her cot 
had awakened her, and, sitting up, she looked 
soberly around at the bare, unfurnished room. The 
plaster on the walls was cracked, and fallen stones 
had nearly blocked up the chimney. Only in one 
corner hung a picture, as though forgotten in hur- 
ried flight. It was of a dog, jumping up to beg, 
with ears pricked forward and twinkling eyes be- 
hind his silky hair. Lucy smiled at it, wishing it 
were alive. With heavy heart she shrank from fac- 
ing the new day, and desperately longed to fall back 
44 


ON THE ALLIED FRONT 


into dreamland. But, unlike the night before, she 
felt strength enough within her to summon up 
her courage and make a prompt and vigorous ef- 
fort. 

“ Come on, Lucy Gordon, buck up! You canH 
give in. Have they brought you this near the battle 
line to be a coward, or are you going to help your 
father and,” scornfully, “ they used to call you 
Captain Lucy? ” 

Like Alice in Wonderland, she was fond of scold- 
ing herself, and could do it as effectively as any 
one else could have done it for her. Close on top 
of the scolding she got up and in her anxious eager- 
ness to be dressed and to see her father she forgot 
to pity herself further, and thought more than any- 
thing else that this day might bring her mother to 
her before it ended. “ But if only those guns would 
stop one minute ! ” she faltered, as she paused in 
her dressing to cover her ears, half deafened by the 
double bombardment. 

Out of the bag so hurriedly packed at Highland 
House she selected a blue gingham dress, for the 
day was warm and sunny. She gave a hasty glance 
at her hair-ribbons in the little mirror she had 
brought with her, and, after putting the bare room 
in order, went out in search of the stairway. It was 
close at hand, beyond the adjoining bedroom, the 
foot of it openmg directly on the street. Lucy 
45 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


ran down it, the sound of voices coming to her from 
outside above the cannons’ noise. 

The street was crowded with French soldiers, to- 
gether with a scattering of Americans, who looked 
very much a i)art of things as they passed by, joined 
in friendly groups with the poilus. One and all 
were hot, dusty and loaded down with field equip- 
ment, for there were few 'permissions just now, and 
these men had been sent back for but a few hours’ 
respite from the fighting-line. Lucy’s eager, shin- 
ing eyes followed each American soldier as he 
passed, all else forgotten but those dear familiar 
figures, until two women, coming by with baskets 
on their arms, stopping to smile and point in her 
direction, recalled her to herself. She returned 
their smiles as cheerfully as she could, wondering 
much at the patient endurance which had left their 
thin faces neither frightened nor despairing. A 
dozen women passed her as she stood on the 
threshold breathing the soft spring air, and several 
children too. All were hurrying, intent upon their 
errands, but they looked quiet and self-possessed, 
not seeming even to hear the never ceasing explo- 
sions which forced them to speak loudly in each 
other’s ears. 

A minute later Lucy caught sight of Miss Pearse 
and Mr. Leslie crossing the street from the hos- 
pital, and she quickly made her way among the 
46 


ON THE ALLIED FRONT 


broken paving stones to meet them. With beating 
heart she searched both their faces, and drew a sigh 
of relief when Mr. Leslie met her anxious eyes with 
a nod and smile of greeting. 

“ It’s all right, Lucy,” were his first words. 
“ Your father is, if anything, better. He is wait- 
ing to see you now.” He looked with some concern 
into her face, which was pale after the hours she 
had lain awake, but she smiled with quick reassur- 
ance. 

“ Don’t say I look tired. Cousin Henry,” she 
begged. “ I did sleep some of the time, didn’t I, 
Miss Pearse? And I feel perfectly well.” 

“ You slept more than I expected you to in this 
racket,” said the nurse frankly. “ It takes several 
days to get so you don’t mind it.” 

“ That’s putting it mildly,” remarked Mr. Leslie, 
as they mounted the steps of the quaint old build- 
ing, crowned with its two Gothic towers. “ I’ve 
been near here for several weeks now, but to tell 
the truth I’m not used to it yet.” 

The sun was shining brightly into Colonel Gor- 
don’s room, and as Lucy entered it her spirits rose 
with a sudden great rush of hope. Her father’s 
eyes were open and for the moment his slow, heavy 
breathing did not contract his forehead into lines 
of pain. 

“ Oh, good-morning. Father! ” she said, gulping 
47 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


down a wild desire to cry, and smiling crookedly in- 
stead. She dropped onto the little chair beside the 
cot and took his hand in hers. “ You’re better, I 
know you are,” she told him, with shining eyes. 

“ Hope so,” murmured Colonel Gordon, shift- 
ing his weight cautiously on the pillows. The 
fingers that Lucy held tightened and clasped hers, 
and her father looked down at the little hand in the 
blue sleeve. “ Lucy,” he said slowly, as though 
making an effort to collect his thoughts, “ Leslie is 
here with you — isn’t he? ” 

“Yes,, indeed — ^he’s right outside,” said Lucy 
quickly. Looking into her father’s eyes she saw 
that they had grown clear and purposeful in spite 
of the dark shadows of pain beneath. With a sud- 
den clearing of his brain he spoke more quickly: 

“ You ought not to be here. I asked for you 
when I was too far gone to think.” He stopped for 
a moment, listening to the guns. “ They’re not far 
off. Our lines cannot be more than four miles 
away. You must go back to England.” 

“Oh, Father!” cried Lucy breathlessly, “you 
won’t make me go back as soon as this? The town 
is quite safe, and I must see you a little stronger 
before I go. Mother will be here soon, you laiow. 
Think what a chance it is for me — to help you to 
get well. Don’t you know how I’ve always longed 
to help?” 


48 


ON THE ALLIED FRONT 


A smile touched Colonel Gordon’s pale lips as 
he answered slowly, “ You have helped, little 
daughter; I’ve got to get well. I know it since 
you came. Before that it seemed easier not to — 
fight.” He struggled for breath and closed his 
eyes. 

Terrified, Lucy started up, but her father’s 
fingers still clasped hers, and, conquering her fear, 
she sat quietly beside him until footsteps sounded 
at the door and Major Greyson entered. 

“All right — stay where you are,” he nodded, his 
eyes on Colonel Gordon’s face. 

The sun moved slowly across the floor, as for an 
hour Lucy sat silent and motionless, until her 
father’s fingers at last relaxed, and he fell into a 
quiet sleep. 

Miss Pearse put an arm about Lucy’s cramped 
shoulders and led her from the room and out into 
the garden. 

“ You poor little kid, you haven’t had your break- 
fast,” she said, pointing to the tray she had made 
ready and set on the old stone bench. “ We’ve 
finished long ago. Sit down this minute and eat, 
and I’ll call Mr. Leslie. He’s been waiting to talk 
to you.” 

Lucy thought she had never tasted anything so 
delicious as that breakfast of bread and army bacon. 
She could not stop for more than a nod to Mr. 

49 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Leslie when he approached her, but his thoughtful 
smile had a far-away look in it as though he had 
plenty to think over while he waited for his little 
cousin to satisfy her hunger. At last she put aside 
her tray and he sat down by her on the bench, draw- 
ing some papers and envelopes from his pocket. 

“ I’m going olf to-day, Lucy,” he began, “ to at- 
tend to some business of my own, and secondly, to 
arrange for your return to England. Hold on a 
minute and let me finish,” he said quickly, as Lucy 
showed every sign of interrupting him. “ I have 
to make those arrangements a day or two ahead if 
you are to get through with as little delay as we 
had in coming here. These papers have to be 
signed by the proper authorities, and they cannot 
always be found at a moment’s notice. It doesn’t 
mean that you must leave to-morrow or even the 
day after, though I have just had rather a debate 
with Major Greyson on the subject.” 

“ Does he wish me to go? ” asked Lucy indig- 
nantly. 

“No, I’ll have to confess it was I who made the 
suggestion. I said this beastly bombardment was 
too hard on your nerves. Your father is better, 
your mother is on her way here, and you ought to 
go. Major Greyson seemed to think he knows you 
better than I. He declared that your nerves could 
stand the strain, and that so long as you were here 
50 


ON THE ALLIED FRONT 


you might stay two or three days longer, for your 
father’s sake.” 

“He’s right; I can stand it,” exclaimed Lucy 
with a quick, happy smile, for it is happiness to have 
struggled hard for courage and to have found it at 
last. “ I may stay. Cousin Henry — ^you said I 
might? ” she pleaded, all her fear and loneliness 
forgotten in renewed longing to be of service to her 
father, and to see her mother again, if only for an 
hour. 

“ I’m going to find out about the journey back,” 
was Mr. Leslie’s cautious answer. “ We needn’t 
decide just yet on the time for it — especially as we 
shouldn’t be able to keep to any schedule. We shall 
have to return as best we can.” 

“Are you going now. Cousin Henry? Which 
way? ” asked Lucy, feeling suddenly very down- 
hearted at the thought of losing his brave, comfort- 
ing presence. 

“ To Amiens to-day; to American Headquarters 
in this sector some time to-morrow, and back here 
to-morrow night. The distances are short, and I’ve 
already booked a ride in a motor-lorry to Amiens. 
I Imow you’re in good hands, little girl,” he added, 
rising from the bench and taking Lucy’s hands in 
his. “ Miss Pearse has promised me to take care 
of you, and Major Greyson is right on the spot. I 
won’t be gone longer than to-morrow night.” 

51 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“All right — don’t woriy about me,” said Lucy, 
summoning the ghost of a smile as she slipped her 
arm through his and walked with him to the ruined 
gateway of the little garden. All around the gate 
rose-bushes were bursting into leaf and bud as 
though this spring the stones of the wall were still 
solidly in place, and the garden paths still swept 
and tidy. Outside they met Major Greyson cross- 
ing the street from the officers’ mess. 

“Are you off, Leslie? ” he inquired, stopping at 
the gate. Then with a frank nod of cheerful en- 
couragement at sight of Lucy’s serious face, he 
added, “ We’ll have good news for you when you 
come back.” 

“ Keep your eye on this little soldier,” urged Mr. 
Leslie, trying not to feel anxious at the moment of 
departure. 

“ Don’t worry about Captain Lucy — oh, yes,” 
to Lucy, “ that’s what they used to call you! ” — was 
the prompt response. “ I’m going to take her in 
now to see the Colonel. He’s really better, and the 
guns have slowed down a trifle — perhaps they can 
hear each other speak.” 

“ Good-bye, Cousin Henry,” said Lucy, still 
lingering at the gate. “ Bring Mother back with 
you, that’s all I ask.” 

On that day and the next, to Lucy’s unspeakable 
gratitude. Colonel Gordon continued to improve. 

52 


ON THE ALLIED FRONT 


Slowly he came back from the shadowy depths of 
unconsciousness, and hour by hour his powerful 
frame gained a new victory over his desperate weak- 
ness. His heavy, hard breathing grew gradually 
more natural, and on the morning following Mr. 
Leslie’s departure, for the first time in many days, 
the deadly pallor was gone from his thin face, and 
the lines of pain faded from his forehead as he 
slept. The artillery fire had slackened on both 
sides into what seemed comparative quiet. For 
long hours Lucy had sat beside him, a silent prayer 
of utter thankfulness in her heart, her only desire 
that her mother should come and find them together 
at this happy moment. Again and again she had 
imagined the meeting. Her mother’s tired and 
anxious face, worn with a long journey’s dreadful 
apprehensions, and the swift and joyful relief of 
the good news awaiting her. “ If she would only 
come to-night,” she thought on the evening Mr. 
Leslie had promised to return. Fears and doubts 
on her mother’s account began to trouble her, 
though Miss Pearse assured her they were need- 
less. 

“ She may have to endure a hundred tiresome 
delays on the road, but she will not be in danger,” 
the kind young nurse persuaded her. “ The rail- 
roads are out of range of the guns. Just have 
patience a little longer.” Once more she repeated 
53 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


this as she and Lucy crossed the street that night 
on their way to bed. ]Mr. Leslie had not yet come, 
but it was early to expect him, 

WTiether Lucy took her companion’s words to 
heart or whether she was too sleepy to worry about 
anything for long, she went to sleep that night with- 
out much trouble, glad of what was really a lull in 
the bombardment. 

For several hours in the welcome quiet she slept 
peacefully, until a dream began disturbing her mi- 
til she tossed restlessly on the hard, narrow cot. 
The dream became a nightmare — a whirling thing 
about some mad adventure. It roused her almost 
to wakefulness, but not enough to laiow she was 
awake. Was she at home on Governor’s Island? 
The drums were beating wildly in her ears. Now 
she had risen into the air — with Bob in his airplane. 
But they were in a thunder-storm, or else what was 
that awful thunder? She sat up, wide awake, con- 
scious of having called out with all her strength. 

Miss Pearse’s voice spoke to her from the door. 
“ Did you call, Lucy? Don’t be frightened. I 
was coming in to stay with you.” She shouted, but 
Lucy could not hear her. The roar and crash of 
the guns was like the noise of thunderbolts above 
the house — a thousand of them together. Miss 
Pearse sat down on the cot beside her and spoke 
into her ear. 


54 


ON THE ALLIED FRONT 


“ The town is not in danger, but the firing started 
again an hour ago. The Germans have begun a 
big attack for miles along the line.” 


55 


CHAPTER III 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 

Lucy knew she could sleep no more that night. 
She got up and began to dress, with pounding heart 
and uncertain fingers. There was no use trying to 
talk. Miss Pearse and her companion, Miss 
Willis, were also getting dressed, intending to re- 
turn to duty at the hospital in anticipation of heavy 
casualties from the front. Dawn was just break- 
ing through the shadowy darkness. Lucy stood 
by the open window, her ear-drums ringing from 
the quivering air, and thought of the peace of a 
Surrey morning, when often she had looked out at 
da^vn on the quiet woodland, and of the first soft 
notes of the birds around them when she and Janet 
had started out early to their gardens. If she were 
only back there! As this thought came unbidden 
she tied her hair-ribbon with a sharp, reproachful 
jerk, and answered herself with genuine scorn. 

“ Is this what all your longing to get nearer to 
the front and be as brave as Bob amounts to? 
Slacker! Heavens, what a big one,” she breathed, 
56 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


her mind distracted from all else as a mighty ex- 
plosion shook the house. 

“Lucy, are you ready?’’ asked Miss Pearse in 
her ear. “ I don’t want to leave you here alone. 
Come to the hospital.” 

Out in the street in the half darkness, figures of 
men were hurrying past, calling to each other in 
scraps of French or English that went unheard in 
the increasing uproar. The eastern sky was 
illumined before the dawn by bursts of red and 
yellow fire, and the air smelt thickly of smoke and 
dust. Lucy thought dazedly of her father, then 
of her mother, remembering thankfully Miss 
Pearse’s confidence that she must be further from 
the guns than Chateau-Plessis. Perhaps Mr. Les- 
lie might be with her — he must surely be almost 
back by now. Lastly, her anxious thoughts 
hovered about her brother and could find no com- 
fort there. Was Bob in the midst of that awful 
conflict? She knew he was, since the attack must 
reach as far as Cantigny. At that moment, 
though, it did not seem possible that such a bom- 
bardment could last many hours. 

Outside the ward Major Greyson was talking 
with a convalescent infantry officer whom Lucy 
knew. At sight of her they both came forward, 
and Captain Lewis said close to her ear, “ Don’t be 
frightened. We are holding them well. Half of 
57 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


this infernal racket comes from our own guns, you 
know.” 

“ It isn’t pleasant to hear, though, is it, Lucy? ” 
asked Major Greyson. “ Your father had a little 
morphine, so he is sleeping. He’s doing splendidly. 
Think of that instead of your other worries. It 
will soon be daylight now, and this won’t last for- 
ever.” 

Lucy nodded without speaking, for even in 
shouts she could hardly hear her own voice. The 
officers left her, each bound on a different errand, 
and she followed Miss Pearse into the nurses’ 
dining-room. 

The first shafts of light were stealing through the 
narrow windows and in the dusk a dozen nurses 
were hurriedly breakfasting. Miss Pearse made 
room for Lucy beside her and handed her a plate 
and cup. A general haste of preparation filled the 
air. As they ate in silence, the bursting shells 
making speech next to impossible, other nurses and 
orderlies went back and forth outside the room, 
carrying blankets and mattresses in a last effort to 
find more room in the already crowded building 
This hospital, improvised by the American Medical 
Corps, and a second, in charge of a French staff, 
were the only ones in Chateau-Plessis, and the need 
had grown overwhelming. 

Before the nurses scattered Miss Pearse brought 
58 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


word to Lucy that she might go to her father’s 
room. The darkness had vanished now, and the 
clear light of dawn filled the hospital. Lucy found 
Major Greyson by Colonel Gordon’s bedside. 

“ He’s still asleep,” he said when she was close 
enough to hear him, nodding his head toward the 
quiet figure on the cot. “ His pulse is good, and 
he breathes easily. You may stay here a while, if 
you like — he may wake any minute.” 

Major Greyson had risen from the chair and, 
seeing him ready to go, Lucy hastily asked the ques- 
tions that were trembling on her tongue. “ Major 
Greyson, where do you think Mother is? And 
Cousin Henry promised to be back last night ! ” 
She shouted into his ear as he bent down to listen, 
but the bursting shells almost drowned her words. 
He nodded quickly to show he understood. 

“ They are held up,” he said with certainty. 
“ The railroad is open to nothing but troop-trains 
to-day. With luck they may manage to get on a 
supply-train, but I’m afraid they’re blocked some- 
where along the road. You mustn’t worry,” he 
added, speaking as hopefully as he could in a voice 
which in a quiet place would have carried across a 
field. “ They are well out of danger — further from 
the front than we are.” 

Lucy sat down beside her father, thankful that 
he had slept through this much of the tumult, and 
59 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


fell to thinking of Bob until her fear for him grew 
greater than her courage, and resolutely she tried 
to turn her thoughts away. Had not Bob come 
back once from deadly peril? From the merci- 
less hands of the enemy? Remembering her own 
despair in that dreadful December of 1917, Lucy 
never failed to find some hope for her brother’s 
safety. Her father did not wake, and when a nurse 
came to take her place she left him and went out 
into the little garden. The sun was rising glori- 
ously behind the clouds of dust and smoke blown 
from the batteries before the town. The pounding 
of the cannon seemed for a moment to have slack- 
ened, even a slight lessening of the din bringing a 
quick relief to her tired ears. Down by the ruined 
gate there was a little crowd of people, and she 
made haste to join them. They were doctors, 
nurses and convalescents together with a few people 
of the town, their eyes all turned toward the rising 
sun, and their hands lifted as a shield against its 
rays. 

“ What is it? ” asked Lucy of a medical officer 
who stood beside her, binoculars in hand. 

He pointed to where the sky was touched with 
pale rose above the clouds of smoke. Three little 
specks were darting up toward the blue. “ Can 
you see those planes? The Germans are trying 
hard to get a detailed plan of our new batteries. 

6o 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


Their airmen have been up for hours, but so far our 
scouts have been too much for them. Look there ! ” 

Above the mounting specks appeared two others, 
seeming to pounce down upon them. Lucy held 
her breath as the newcomers swooped and circled, 
closing in upon the three below, until a feath- 
ery cloud cut them off from the eager, watching 
eyes. 

The moment of suspense among the little group 
changed to a stirring of anxiety and disappoint- 
ment, felt rather than heard in the cannon’s roar. 
Most of the hospital staff members tore themselves 
away to return to their duties, but Lucy could not 
take her dazzled eyes from that glowing sky. Half 
unconsciously she followed the little group of 
townspeople who, seeking a place in the open, away 
from the pointed towers of the old town hall, moved 
step by step down the ruined street to the square 
of which the hospital made a corner. The sun had 
risen higher now, and beneath it the planes were 
again visible against a background of pearl and 
rose. As they gazed breathlessly up at those 
moving dots that were men in desperate struggle, 
one of the planes fell swiftly toward the earth. 
Lucy gave a quick gasp of anguish. She could not 
bear to watch, but neither could she turn her eyes 
away. Was the plane just brought down Allied 
or enemy? She inquired of her nearest neighbor 

6i 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


in disjointed shouts of French, but the woman 
shook her head sadly, knowing no more than she. 
Was Bob among them? Lucy longed most to 
know that, for better or worse. “ It’s waiting I 
never can bear,” she had said to Marian Leslie 
months before. Now it seemed as though the war 
was all made up of waiting. 

The young doctor had left her his binoculars, but 
she found it hard to use them in the quivering roar 
of the guns against the glaring sky. If the air- 
planes would come a little nearer she thought she 
could find out something. That wish at least was 
quickly granted. Out of the distance the specks 
grew bigger with amazing swiftness. Lucy winked 
her eyes, before which disks of red and black 
were dizzily floating, from the glowing sunlight. 
Around her, fingers were pointed in excited 
gestures, and her ears caught fragments of shouts 
and exclamations. On came the airplanes, until in 
what seemed but a breath of time they had grown 
to big winged objects that hovered in plain sight, 
far overhead, but not a mile away in horizontal 
flight. Now they were out of the sun’s path, and 
the watching eyes could look at them undazzled. 
There were six, as nearly as Lucy with fast beating 
heart could count them in among the feathery 
clouds that flecked the sky. The little crowd had 
gathered to three times its size, and for all the 
62 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


thunder of the guns, the cries of the excited people 
could be heard in their anxious expectancy. 

Lucy gave a quick look around her as she lowered 
her head for an instant to ease the aching muscles 
of her eyes and throat. A few people from the 
hospital had rejoined the crowd and familiar faces 
were among them. A queer sensation of having 
eaught a glimpse of some one intently watching 
her — of a keen pair of eyes looking out from among 
the group of shawled women and old men and boys 
gathered from the near-by streets — made her glance 
around once more. There was no one now whose 
gaze was not turned upward, and she looked at 
the clouds again, the strange impression forgot- 
ten. 

The six planes had separated into two groups. 
Two were high among the clouds, the remaining 
four moving here and there below them. Of the 
four one was clearly out of the fight, for in another 
moment it turned and veered off in the direction of 
the Freneh and German lines, sinking slowly as it 
flew. 

“ That’s a Boehe,” said a voice in Lucy’s ear. 
Captain Lewis was at her side and, taking the 
glasses she held, he leveled them at the sky. “Now 
they are in range again,” he added. “ Our men 
are above in those little Nieuports. The Boches 
below are in big Fokker battle-planes. They could 

63 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


eat up our little fellows if they could reach them. 
Luckily the Nieuports can keep above. That 
fourth who was put out of the game leaves them 
three to two — pretty close.” Lucy leaned nearer 
to catch his words, for in his preoccupation he for- 
got to speak loud enough. A burst of fire from a 
big German plane made one of the Nieuports veer 
sharply from its level poise above the enemy. The 
glasses stiffened in the young officer’s hands, but in 
a moment the Nieuport righted itself and rose 
again beside its fellow. From the French trenches 
anti-aircraft guns were sending shots that burst 
below the German craft in spouts of flame. But 
they fell short of the targets, the gunners evidently 
fearing to hit the little Nieuports so close above 
them. 

As the battle shifted nearer the planes flew over 
the eastern end of the town. In another five 
minutes Captain Lewis seized Lucy’s arm, saying, 
“ Come on — come back to the hospital. They may 
be over us in a moment.” As Lucy, too lost in that 
terrible and thrilling struggle to even hear his 
words, stood silent and unheeding he shook her arm 
and shouted in her ear, “ Come on! Look, here’s 
the patrol come to break up the crowd. You can’t 
stay here.” 

A guard of a dozen French soldiers with a 
sergeant had arrived to disperse the people, who, 
64 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


oblivious like Lucy to possible danger, still stood 
gazing spellbound into the sky. Even when 
ordered with shouts and unceremonious gestures to 
get under shelter they walked slowly from the spot, 
turning again and again toward the clouds among 
which the five planes darted, each pouring a deadly 
fire upon its enemy. 

Lucy got back somehow into the hospital garden, 
but there she stopped, and Captain Lewis, seeing 
the planes were not directly overhead, stopped with 
her. They were not alone, but the few others stood 
like them in tense silence, watching the two little 
Nieuports still swooping about their big opponents 
in quick attack or momentary retreat, and every 
watcher awaited with eager hopes and prayers the 
final decision. Lucy’s racing heart beat until her 
throat ached intolerably and her head began to 
swim. She clutched at the stone heap that was 
the gate-post, trying to quiet her panting breath. 
Suddenly a shout went up around her. One of the 
big German Fokkers had tilted oddly on its side. 
One wing was drooping helplessly, its wire supports 
cut by machine-gun bullets; and now flames darted 
from the body of the plane and it began to fall. 
Lucy covered her face with her hands. Then an 
arm stole around her shoulders and Miss Pearse’s 
kind voice said in her ear, “ Oh, Lucy, don’t tremble 
so! I know it is awful to see for the first time — 

65 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


but it’s war, you know. And I think the fight is 
ours ! ” 

Lucy looked up again, not trying to answer. 
The German plane was gone. A quick stir among 
the little group told her that things were happening 
swiftly. At that moment the tide of battle turned. 

The two enemy biplanes, unwilling to remain 
beneath the galling fire of the little Nieuports which 
hung like deadly hornets above them, had made 
tremendous efforts to rise to a level with their 
antagonists. But fast as they rose, the lighter 
planes rose still faster, until a cloud drove in be- 
tween Allied and German craft, concealing each 
from the other. Only the Germans were visible 
to the watchers below. They evidently saw in the 
momentary check a good chance of escape and sped 
off swiftly like great birds through the bright morn- 
ing air toward the safe shelter of the German lines. 
A perfect hail of fire from the French and Amer- 
ican trenches met them as they passed this perilous 
frontier. Puffs of smoke and balls of red and yel- 
low fire enveloped them, while from behind the 
drifting cloud the Nieuports darted in pursuit. 
But the target was beyond the reach of the anti- 
aircraft gunners. The German planes sailed ma- 
jestically on, and the little Nieuports, remembering 
that discretion is a part of valor, forbore to cross 
into German territory. 


66 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


“ They’re coming back. They’re quite all right, 
you see!” cried Captain Lewis at Lucy’s side. 
From the little group a wild cheer went up at sight 
of the two daring little scouts returning unharmed 
from a battle which had cost the enemy dearly with- 
out the compensation of a glimpse at the Allies’ 
defenses. 

“ They are looking for a place to land,” continued 
Captain Lewis, his glasses pointed again at the sky. 
“ One fellow has a badly riddled wing. There 
they come — they are going to land on that big 
meadow just outside the town, inside our lines.” 

As he spoke the Nieuports slowly dropped in a 
long slanting course until in a moment the hospital 
towers hid them from sight. 

Lucy stirred and sighed as though waking from 
a dream. Her neck and shoulders ached so she 
could hardly straighten them, and her eyes were 
almost blinded by long gazing at the sunny sky. 
She looked aroimd, blinking, at the little crowd of 
people who seemed, like herself, slowly coming back 
to earth to take up their tasks again. The street 
had once more filled with people, chiefly women who 
had paused with baskets on their arms, oblivious of 
what they set out to do. Now they moved on with 
hurried steps as if trying to overtake the time. 
Lucy suddenly remembered the face that she had 
seen watching her with such furtive intentness from 
67 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


among the townspeople in the square. The im- 
pression, made at a moment when she was too pre- 
occupied to give it any thought, was too strong to 
be forgotten. Some one’s eyes had been fixed upon 
her with a piercing earnestness, but beyond that 
she had seen nothing — no definiteness of face or 
figure. In the midst of wondering she remembered 
her father and ran back at once to the hospital. 

Colonel Gordon was awake, lying quietly upon 
his pillows, his lips set and his eyes keen and 
thoughtful as the crash of the bombardment struck 
his ears. At sight of Lucy he smiled and held out 
a welcoming hand, but the searching look did not 
fade from his eyes, and his thin face wore some of 
the old confident determination that Lucy so well 
remembered. For a moment joy at the change in 
his appearance overwhelmed her, until the look in 
his eyes deepened to one of painful anxiety as he 
said, struggling to make himself heard above the 
guns: 

“ You must go, Lucy — you can’t stay here. 
Where is Cousin Henry? ” 

Eager to relieve his mind, Lucy shouted, “ I’m 
going. Father — soon! Cousin Henry will be back 
to-night or to-morrow. Major Greyson says he is 
held up somewhere. Like Mother, you know — 
she’s on her way here too. I’m going back to Eng- 
land just as soon as he can take me. Anyway, the 
68 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


Germans haven’t got ahead a bit, and the bombard- 
ment is letting up — so Captain Lewis says.” She 
stopped, breathless, wondering if the firing really 
had slackened, as in her ears the merciless pounding 
still continued. 

Colonel Gordon’s face remained unchanged, and 
drawing Lucy down to him he kissed her, saying, 
“ Send Major Greyson to me as soon as he can 
manage it. You are going back now if it is any 
way possible.” 

Lucy went thoughtfully out into the ward and, 
meeting Major Greyson, sent him to her father’s 
room. Then Miss Pearse found her and took her 
off to lunch, at which she sat down tired and 
famished. 

“ I guess you are hungry,” remarked the young 
nurse, helping her to a steaming ladleful of cab- 
bage soup. “ I would lie down a little while after 
this if I were you,” she added, with a glance at 
Lucy’s flushed cheeks. “ You mustn’t be too tired 
for your journey back to Calais, for I’m afraid it 
will be a long and tiresome one.” 

She rose from the table as she spoke in answer 
to a knock at the door. [Almost at once she came 
back saying, “ Major Greyson would like to speak 
to you a minute, Lucy.” 

Outside the door the officer gave Lucy a nod of 
greeting and spoke quickly. 

69 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ I wanted to tell you that we have arranged for 
you to leave here to-morrow morning. One of the 
nurses sent back for rest to Calais is going too. I 
can’t stop to give you the details now, but your 
father will not have you wait for Leslie, in case he 
does not get here to-night.” He gave an emphatic 
nod at sight of Lucy’s troubled face. “ He’s right, 
you loiow. Leslie would have taken you off before 
this; but things turn up so quickly, one can’t plan 
everything. Go back and eat your lunch now. I’ll 
see you later.” 

Lucy went back and sat down again, her appetite 
chased away. Now that departure was really at 
hand her thoughts and feelings were very conflict- 
ing. Longing for the peace of Surrey and its free- 
dom from the terrible sights and sounds about her 
was mixed with a great and growing sense of pride 
and satisfaction in her nearness to the heart of the 
great struggle; in the never-dying hope that she 
might be of service to the cause she loved so well. 
Thinking these things she choked down her bread 
untasted, wishing desperately that her mother 
would come. Suddenly something struck her ears 
like a great shock. She started up, gasping, and 
saw that the nurses had started up likewise, but now 
they were dropping back into their chairs, with faint 
smiles of pure relief. In a flash she understood. 
The bombardment had ceased. Not died away to 
70 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


utter silence, but compared with the ear-splitting 
din of the night and morning the scattering fire 
remaining seemed no more than rifle shots. 

Miss Pearse said, “ Sit down, Lucy. It’s stopped, 
thank heaven ! ” 

She spoke in her ordinary tone of voice, and Lucy, 
answering her, did not know how to pitch her own 
voice and half shouted, uncertain if she could be 
heard. “ Is it all over? ” she stammered, wanting 
to cry, strangely enou^, and swallowing hard to 
keep from it. 

“ Oh, I don’t know,” was the doubtful reply. 
‘‘ Be thankful, anyhow, that it has stopped for a 
little while.” 

Just the low sound of the voices around the table 
was a pleasure, after the fragments shouted in each 
other’s ears so long. It took some minutes to get 
used to the sudden change — the long continued 
noise left a great vacancy not at once filled up by 
ordinary sounds. The nurses hurried through their 
meal and rose one by one to go back to their duties. 
Outside the door a nurse whom Lucy did not know 
had come up and was speaking to Miss Pearse. 

“ They came down on that biggest hay-field — the 
one right outside the town,” Lucy heard her saying. 
“ Just two of them. One of the airplanes had a 
badly cut wing. I stopped to see them as I 
was coming back from the farmhouse with the or- 

71 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


deriy, after getting old Mere Breton’s eggs and 
milk.” 

“Who were the aviators? Do you know their 
names? ” interrupted Lucy, forgetting everything 
but her eagerness. 

“ Yes,” said the nurse, turning toward her with a 
pleasant nod and a look of curiosity on her own part 
at sight of the little stranger. “ One of them is 
Captain Jourdin of the French Flying Corps. 
The other is an American — Lieutenant Gordon.” 

Lucy’s heart gave such a bound she could hardly 
gasp out to Miss Pearse the wonderful truth. 

“ Your brother, Lucy? ” the nurse exclaimed. 
“Are you sure? Of course it must be! ” 

“ Oh, I’m sure! There’s not another Gordon in 
the Aviation Corps. How can I get to him? Who 
will take me? ” cried Lucy, each moment’s delay 
beyond words unbearable. 

“ I’ll go with you myself — I can get off for an 
hour. We’ll have to run all the way,” said Miss 
Pearse in one hasty breath, Lucy’s wild eagerness 
awaking instant sympathy in her kind heart. 
“ Wait here imtil I get permission.” 

She was off as she spoke, leaving Lucy standing 
at the doorway to the garden trying to calm her 
whirling thoughts and to realize the truth of the 
happy chance that had come to her. So it had 
really been Bob all the time whom she had watched 

72 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


with such desperate hope and fear as he fought for 
his life in the clouds above her! At that moment it 
seemed days and days since she had risen from 
troubled dreams to the thunder of the guns that 
morning. 

Miss Pearse came up behind her saying, “All 
right — come on! ” 

Together they ran through the garden and out 
into the street. It was a mile to the big level 
meadow just east of Chateau-Plessis, through 
streets heaped with fallen stones and rubbish, the 
houses scarred and battered by flying shrapnel, and 
here and there collapsed in utter ruin. 

As Lucy ran on tirelessly, looking only to the 
goal ahead, thoughts raced tumultuously through 
her excited brain until her father, mother. Bob and 
William, the past and the uncertain present, were 
jumbled together into a maze of doubt and wonder- 
ing. Only to see Bob — to talk to him — somehow 
everything would then be straightened out. She 
thought of Captain Jourdin. What ages since she 
had bound up his injured hand on Governor’s 
Island. For two months now he had been back in 
the French Service and Bob’s letters had told her 
of his new and brilliant exploits. How Bob had 
dreamed of having a part in all this, that was now 
coming true! With a rush of strange happiness 
Lucy felt that she herself had now a part in it as 
73 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE' 


well. For a moment she had forgotten the leave- 
taking so near at hand. 

“ Tired, Lucy? ” asked Miss Pearse, slowing up 
to catch her breath. “ We’re almost there.” 

The streets became lanes as they neared the out- 
skirts of Chateau-Plessis. The houses thinned to 
scattered cottages set among neglected gardens — 
almost all empty and forlorn, for this side of the 
town had been most exposed during the bombard- 
ment which ended in its capture. In another few 
moments they passed the last house of the lane and, 
beyond what was left of a grove of bright green pop- 
lars, opened a wide grassy meadow. It stretched 
with several others, in broad undulating lines as 
far as the wood which lay between the fields and 
the French trenches. The nearest meadow was a 
favorite landing-place for aviators scouting above 
the town. 

A few hundred yards to the left a little crowd of 
people had gathered around two airplanes resting 
on the grass. At sight of them Miss Pearse and 
Lucy both cried out with the little breath left them. 
For a second they stood still, panting aloud, with 
crimson cheeks and hair stuck in damp wisps to 
their hot foreheads. Then they ran on to the edge 
of the crowd which had collected close about the 
aviators, eager to offer help and friendly greetings. 

Bob Gordon was standing by one of the planes, 
74 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


his hands full of tools. His gloves and helmet he 
had flung upon the grass, but now his work was 
done, and he stood idly by while his companion put 
the finishing touches to the repair of his bullet- 
riddled wing. Bob’s face was hot and streaked 
with oil and dust to the roots of his brown hair. 
His sunburned cheeks were thinner than when he 
had left West Point less than a year ago. He 
looked calm and self-reliant beyond his years, his 
whole lean figure filled with energy and decision. 
He was not yet twenty-one, but to Lucy he seemed 
a boy no longer. 

The croAvd made way for her in astonishment as 
she begged and pushed her panting way among 
them. Then Bob turned at the disturbance and 
caught sight of her. Plis face was a study of un- 
believing wonder and delight as he let fall the tools 
and sprang to meet her. Lucy flung her arms 
about his neck and he hugged her so close he could 
feel her heart beating as she fought for breath. 
For a moment neither of them spoke a word, Lucy 
too breathless and Bob too overcome. Around 
them the friendly little crowd broke into delighted 
cries of sympathy and pleasure. Captain J ourdin 
lifted astonished eyes from his forgotten work, and 
Miss Pearse, with swimming head and parching 
throat, dropped down upon the grass. 

“ Lucy! You! ” said Bob at last, drawing back 
75 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


from his little sister and holding both her hands to 
look into her face. “ You’re here at Chateau- 
Plessis! ” Still he seemed almost incredulous, and 
his eyes wandered over Lucy, while he held her 
hands, as though he thought his eyes had tricked 
him. 

“ Oh, Bob, how are you? ” Lucy faltered, getting 
her breath at last, but struggling desperately with 
the strangling emotion that caught her at sight 
of her brother. September, 1917 — how long ago 
that seemed since she had said good-bye to him that 
morning at Governor’s Island. And what dread- 
ful days they had been through since then! 

Bob pulled her down beside him on the grass with 
an eager, searching look into her face. “ How is 
Father? Tell me that first.” 

“ He’s better — truly. Bob — ^much better,” Lucy 
answered quickly. 

“ He’s safe — he will get well? ” Bob whispered, 
and Lucy, seeing the lines of anxiety that had 
chased away the smile about his lips and the look 
of tired suffering in his eyes, almost choked before 
she managed to say, “ Oh, Bob dear, he’s safe ! He 
talks to me just like himself. He made me promise 
to go back to England to-morrow.” 

“And Mother — where is she?” Bob asked, after 
a moment’s silent thankfulness. Lucy’s words had 
brought back a little of the old brightness to his 
76 



“this meadow is the best landing-place’’ 




A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


face. He spoke hurriedly in sudden realization of 
the short time they had together. Then, as Lucy 
shook her head, he added, “ I had telegrams, you 
know. One reached me at Cantigny from Cousin 
Henry saying you had come to Father and that he 
had improved a little. But of course the name of 
the town was suppressed, so I didn’t know where 
you were. If I could have come myself I should 
have learned at General Headquarters where 
Father was. But I never thought to drop down on 
the lucky spot like this! I was here before, you 
know, nearly a month ago — before the Germans 
took the town. This meadow is the best landing- 
place around here.” 

The little crowd of people had dwindled, some 
moving off to leave brother and sister alone to- 
gether, for Miss Pearse had been questioned until 
every one there knew the story of Bob and Lucy’s 
meeting. Others, too interested to go, still stood 
watching with smiling faces, and neither Bob nor 
Lucy minded them. But in another moment l/ucy 
sprang up from the grass and held out her hand to 
Captain Jourdin. He took it with a quick bow, his 
face lighting up as he returned her greeting, in a 
voice deeply touched with friendly feeling. 

“Welcome to France, Miss Lucie! I never 
thought to see you here.” 

There was no use trying to put into words the 
77 


CAPTAIN iTUCr IN FRANCE 


strangeness of their meeting. Lucy tried to say a 
little of what she felt, and could not. Looking into 
the Frenchman’s fine grave face she saw again the 
snow-covered land by the sea-wall on Governor’s 
Island, herself and William standing beside a sled 
and Captain Jourdin getting out of his stranded 
airplane and limping toward them. She had told 
him that day of Bob’s imprisonment, hoping against 
hope that he could give her encouragement of some 
sort for his safety. She glanced involuntarily at 
his wrist, and he smiled and held it up, saying, 
“You see, it is quite all right again, Captain Lucy!” 

“ You are back in the service — that’s better than 
anything, isn’t it? ” she said at last, and his eyes, 
lighting up at her words, told her the depth of his 
satisfaction. 

“ I shall not soon forget that American surgeon,” 
he answered softly. “ He gave me back to France.” 

“ Lucy,” said Bob suddenly from behind her, 
“ a fellow I just spoke with here says the American 
hospital is not a mile away. I’m going to see 
Father. I can run all the way. How about it, 
Jourdin? Will you wait half an hour? ” 

“But certainly! the firing has almost ceased,” 
was the willing answer. “ We shall have a quiet 
night, so it appears. I will stay here on guard 
until you return.” 

“ Lucy, don’t try to run again — ^you’ll kill your- 
78 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


self,” urged Bob, putting his arm about his little 
sister’s shoulders and giving her an involuntary 
hug. “ Stay here, and I’ll be back as soon as pos- 
sible. This man who told me where the hospital 
was will take me there.” 

“ I can run, Bob, but of course you can go faster 
alone,” said Lucy reluctantly, hating to lose her 
brother for any of these precious moments. “ Go 
on — Father will love so to see you,” she added 
quickly. “And then you will know yourself that 
he is really getting well.” 

Her words were hardly spoken when the heavy 
crashing boom of a cannon broke the quiet of the 
German lines. Other shots followed before the 
screaming shell had burst. At once from the wood 
in front of the meadows the French and American 
guns replied. The bursting German shells in- 
creased in number, and now once more a thunderous 
din reechoed through the quivering air. 

Speechless with despairing terror, Lucy threw 
her arms about Bob’s neck, and he held her while 
he shouted in her ear, “ It’s on again — I can’t go 
now! Buck up there. Captain! ” 

The old name roused Lucy’s sinking courage. 

- She stood erect and dazedly saw the little crowd 
around them fast dispersing. Captain Jourdin 
putting away the tools and picking up his helmet, 
and Miss Pearse running quickly to her side. She 
79 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


did not hear the words the nurse shouted, but she 
heard Captain Jourdin speaking hastily to Bob. 

“ to get back to the squadron before the fire 

grows hotter — no time to lose — we shall be needed 
if the German lines are stiffening before the 

town ” These fragments caught her ear. 

She understood, too, that Bob was in greater danger 
if he delayed, and that was enough to make her 
forget everything else. She put her arms about 
his neck again and said a brief good-bye, hoping the 
shake in her voice was drowned by the cannon. 

The next moment Bob was seated in his plane, 
leaning down to her for a final leave-taking. A 
mechanic from the town stood ready by the pro- 
peller. Captain Jourdin was in his own machine, 
and now he turned to Lucy, raising his hand in a 
farewell gesture that seemed to speak his own 
dauntless courage. In another moment he was off 
do^vn the meadow like a skimming bird. Bob’s 
last words were quickly spoken. 

“ Give lots of love to Father — and Cousin 
Henry. You’ll go back to England to-morrow? ” 
he shouted. Lucy had not even had time to tell 
him Mr. Leslie was not there. He nodded to the 
man at the propeller, then turned to Lucy once 
more. “ Do you know whom I saw in Chateau- 
Plessis a month ago — ^might — ^here — still ! ” The 
roaring propeller drowned his words. 

8o 


A GLIMPSE OF BOB 


“ Bob — what? ” begged Lucy, straining her ears 
as she leaped back from the machine, but Bob could 
not hear her either. She saw his lips move, though 
not a sound came from them. But he thought she 
understood and with a last nod and smile which he 
tried hard to make cheerful, for that lonely little 
figure standing there brought an aching pang to his 
heart, he pressed forward his control stick and sped 
off down the field. 

Side by side Miss Pearse and Lucy watched the 
two Nieuports rise into the air over the wood, soar- 
ing far above the bursting shells. Then they turned 
and with one accord ran swiftly toward the town, 
while the thundering guns shook the earth beneath 
their feet. 


8i 


CHAPTER IV 

THE FORTUNE OF WAR 

Daavn was hardly brealdng on the morning of 
May 21st, when Lucy woke from the heavy sleep 
into which she had fallen early the night before. 
Nothing — ^not the crash of the bombardment nor 
the ceaseless anxiety of her own thoughts — could 
have kept her awake for long after her head touched 
the pillow the evening of Bob’s visit. Sleep had 
been stronger than all fears, though now she won- 
dered that it had ever come, for the shock of the 
battle seemed louder and more terrible as it struck 
her protesting ears. Miss Pearse and her com- 
panion were already up, and Lucy hastily dressed 
herself, eager to learn what Major Greyson had 
decided about her departure. Last night the plan 
had still been unsettled, as it must be while trains 
and motor trucks had three times their normal work 
to do. It was a bitter disappointment to give up 
all hope of seeing her mother, though Major Grey- 
son had told her that the renewed bombardment 
might last for days and that Mr. Leslie would have 
82 


THE FORTUNE OF WAR 


reached Chateau-Plessis before this, had any sort of 
undelayed travel been possible. 

She was swayed by alternate hopes and fears as 
she brushed her hair in the half-darkness, and felt 
about on the little table for her comb and ribbons. 
It was so desperately hard to think at all with that 
unearthly noise dazing her brain, but in spite of her 
tormenting uncertainty she clung steadfastly to one 
consoling thought. She had helped to bring her 
father out of danger. Her journey had not been 
in vain, however hopeless her longing to do more 
than stand weakly by watching the struggle in 
which Bob and the rest fought so gallantly. She 
knew she could help — even here on the battle-front. 
Last year it seemed impossible that she could do 
anything toward winning Bob’s freedom, and yet 
did she not have a hand in sending Mr. Leslie on 
that long, hard journey? Lucy had not much con- 
ceit in her nature, but she did have a good deal of 
her brother’s confident energy, and, her courage 
once firmly grasped, she could persevere in a cause 
on which her heart was set, like a true soldier’s 
daughter. 

“ I’m ready. Miss Pearse,” she called presently, 
waking from her serious thoughts as the nurse came 
to her door. 

They went in silence down the stairs into the 
street, for this morning Miss Pearse did not try any 

83 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


of her usual kind and encouraging means of bolster- 
ing up Lucy’s cheerfulness. She was strangely 
silent and preoccupied. In the street a hurrying 
throng of soldiers, women and children were passing 
by, dim shadows in the first light of the dawn. Lucy 
wondered at their numbers as she made her way 
among them, her eyes turning with a fearful fascina- 
tion toward the east, where the light of bursting 
shells outshone the pale streaks of day. The hos- 
pital was the scene of a great though orderly con- 
fusion. Almost a hundred wounded men had been 
brought in during the night, and every spare foot of 
space had been used to lay down a mattress or to un- 
fold a narrow army cot. Doctors, orderlies and 
nurses were moving in every direction about the 
crowded halls, and Lucy stole away with painfully 
beating heart, and found refuge in her father’s little 
room. 

A nurse was sitting there, with her arms upon 
the window-sill, staring out into the shadowy street. 
She turned pale cheeks and troubled eyes toward 
Lucy, and her faint smile had nothing cheerful in 
it as she rose and offered her a chair by her father’s 
side. Lucy felt a pang of fear at sight of that tired 
face. The nurse looked as though she had kept an 
anxious watch, and Lucy turned searching eyes 
upon her father, fearing a change for the worse. 

“ He’s doing well,” the nurse said in her ear, 
84 


THE FORTUNE OF WAR 


guessing her thoughts, and she accompanied the 
words with a little encouraging nod, though the 
color did not come back to her pale cheeks, nor the 
apprehension leave her eyes. 

Lucy sat down at her father’s side, wondering 
greatly, and the nurse went out. Colonel Gordon 
was just beginning to wake, but for a few moments 
more he lingered in a doze. At last he opened his 
eyes and looked at Lucy with a slow understanding 
smile of recognition. 

“ You, little daughter? ” he asked, reaching out 
a hand. “ What time is it, anyway? It’s not light 
yet. What are you doing here? ” Then as the 
full force of the guns smote upon his ears and brain 
he started up on his pillows, saying with quick 
earnestness, ‘‘ You’re going to-day, eh — Lucy? 
They’ve arranged it? Greyson promised me. 
Henry’s not back? ” 

“ I don’t know yet,” Lucy answered, bending 
over him to be heard. “ I haven’t seen Major 
Greyson, he’s so busy, but I think he’s going to 
send me off some time to-day.” Just then it was 
real happiness to hear her father’s voice so full of 
energy and purpose — so nearly like his old con- 
fident self. She smiled and forgot her worries for 
a moment. In all Colonel Gordon’s eager interest 
of the evening before at the news of Bob’s visit he 
had seemed tired and restless, but this morning even 

85 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Lucy’s unskilled eyes could see a real imjprovement. 
She began to tell him about Bob once more. 

“ If you could only have watched him yesterday 
morning in the air, Father! You’ve seen him fly 
though, of course. They were so wonderful, he 
and Captain Jourdin, keeping after those big Ger- 
man planes until they drove them home. He looks 
well, I think.” She checked herself and added 
truthfully, “ But he’s thinner than he was.” She 
did not tell her father of the anxiety Bob had under- 
gone in his behalf. She wanted to describe his sur- 
prise at their meeting, but the effort needed to 
talk was terrific. It was like speaking in a never- 
ending peal of thunder. 

Soon Colonel Gordon’s nurse came back and told 
Lucy that breakfast was ready. It was daylight 
now in the wards, where the workers still passed 
from one patient to the next, along the rows of cots 
and mattresses. Lucy glanced down the long room 
with a little shuddering tremor of pity and horror, 
not daring to look too closely at those silent band- 
aged figures. But in the depths of her heart the 
longing still persisted, first roused months ago at 
that little nursing class on Governor’s Island, to do 
something to help from the stores of her own health 
and energy. 

She went on into the nurses’ rest and dining-room 
and, finding no one yet at the table, stood by one 
86 


THE FORTUNE OF WAR 


of the quaint, narrow windows, from which the 
glass had been shattered long ago, looking out 
across the garden into the street. The crowd of 
people had grown dense in the last hour. Now it 
was entirely made up of townspeople; women, old 
men and children, who seemed to-day to have for- 
gotten their orderly routine and to be hurrying 
blindly through the streets with baskets on their 
arms and bundles on their shoulders. The children 
clung to their mothers’ skirts with looks of fear and 
bewilderment. In the few minutes that Lucy stood 
there not a person passed by going toward the 
eastern side of Chateau-Plessis. They were fleeing 
from the battle-front toward the other end of the 
town, where already the transport lines were over- 
loaded until not a horse or mule was to be had for 
miles around. As she watched a deadly fear crept 
over Lucy’s heart. She tried to stifle it, but could 
not. Her eyes did not deceive her, and had not 
Miss Pearse’s face two hours ago first stirred her 
to uneasiness? She went to the door of the room, 
wondering why the nurses did not come, and caught 
sight of Major Greyson and another medical of- 
ficer talking earnestly together. They were forced 
to speak so loud that the words came plainly to her 
ears, as uncertainly she started forward. 

“ It’s impossible. Major!” exclaimed the younger 
“ She can’t go now. She’s better off here 

87 


man. 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


than lost in that raging torrent of humanity behind 
the town. We may be ” 

A shell that seemed to burst over the hospital 
itself drowned his last words, and Lucy could not 
hear Major Greyson’s reply as the two moved off 
together. Her heart had begun to pound with 
terror, and she longed desperately to follow Major 
Greyson and find out the worst. But the wards 
were a place of battle now, where the workers 
strained every nerve to do what their small number 
could for the growing hundreds of wounded men. 
She could not enter it yet, and hastily deciding to 
go back to her father, who was often alone in these 
crowded hours, she dropped down on a chair for a 
moment until she could calm her frightened breath- 
ing. She buried her face in her hands, and while 
she sat there, running steps came up behind her 
and Miss Pearse fell on her knees beside the chair 
and caught hold of Lucy’s hands. The young 
nurse’s cheeks were deadly pale, but her brave, 
honest blue eyes met Lucy’s franldy. She took 
the terrified girl by the shoulders and spoke close 
to her ear. 

“ They said for me to tell you, but you’ll need all 
your courage, so don’t you let it go. Oh, Lucy, 
Lucy! The French and Americans are far out- 
numbered! They are retreating on both sides of 
us, and Chateau-Plessis will soon be inside the Ger- 
88 


THE FORTUNE OF WAR 


man lines.” In si^ite of all her self-control her 
voice trembled and broke, and for a second she hid 
her face on Lucy’s shoulder, while the two clmig 
together. 

Too dazed to realize at that moment the extent 
of the catastrophe, Lucy tried to put her whirling 
thoughts together and make this awful thing seem 
real. “ The Germans will take Chateau-Plessis,” 
she told herself, and still the words had little mean- 
ing for her. She felt that somewhere she had 
stopped living and begun to dream, but just where 
was the question. Only Miss Pearse’s face recalled 
her a little — that brave, young face with lips tight 
closed to hide their trembling and undaunted pur- 
pose in her clear eyes. 

“ It began with a new push against our lines at 
Argenton,” Lucy heard her saying. “ They’ve 
given countless lives to take it, but now they are 
there we have to fall back to straighten out our 
line. It was all in an hour of the early morning, — 
the turning-point of the battle. Our reserves were 
held up somewhere, and the Germans brought two 
divisions for every one of ours into the fight.” She 
stopped, breathless, and Lucy, beginning to under- 
stand, asked suddenly: 

“All those people running by; can they get 
away? ” 

“ Not unless they walk for miles — there is no 
89 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


other chance. Major Greyson is nearly wild be- 
cause you have not gone. Of course there was no 
question of evacuating the hospital — wq have to 
stay.” 

“And I have to stay,” said Lucy slowly, but Miss 
Pearse did not hear the words. 

“ Your father does not know,” she continued. 
“They have given him something to make him 
sleep, and he is comfortable.” A sob rose un- 
checked in Lucy’s throat, but in a moment Miss 
Pearse had drawn her to her feet, saying earnestly, 
“ Whatever happens, we must look ahead and hope, 
or we shall have no courage left. They will leave 
us in the hospital, you know. We shall be safe 
enough here.” 

Safe sounded a strange word to use, Lucy 
thought, as she walked dully toward the table. 

She tried her best, in spite of that numbing 
paralysis of fear, to capture something of Miss 
Pearse’s calm and steadfast bravery, but that 
hurried breakfast and the whole morning after it 
seemed no more than a great waking nightmare. 
The other nurses had joined them for a few hasty 
mouthfuls, every one with that desperate struggle 
between fear and courage written upon her tired 
face. For it is harder to be brave when one is 
spent with weariness, and none of the nurses 
had slept more than three or four hours out of 
90 


THE FORTUNE OF WAR 


the twenty-four since the opening of the second 
attack. 

When Lucy was left alone again she sat on the 
window-ledge, staring at the ever-changing scene 
outside. Big motor-lorries, loaded with stores and 
equipment, were making their difficult way through 
the streets now. Perched on top of the loads were 
men hanging on somehow, for the convalescent 
patients who were at all able to stand a journey had 
begged or stolen transportation for a few miles 
toward the rear, whence they could strike another 
blow instead of falling into the enemy’s hands. 
Along with these came the crowd of civilian 
refugees, weighed down with the shabby household 
furnishings that meant too much to them to leave 
behind, just as their homes had meant so much 
that they had clung there in desperate hope until 
escape became all but impossibje. The straggling 
lines looked sadly unable to cover the long, hard 
miles that lay between them and any refuge. 
Lucy’s eyes grew blurred with tears of pity as, for- 
getting her own overpowering fear and dread, she 
watched a heavily-burdened woman shuffie past, 
carrying her baby as well as bulky bundles of clothes 
and bedding. After her toddled two other chil- 
dren, one of them no more than able to walk, 
stumbling helplessly among the heaps of stone. 

“ Oh, how dreadful — ^how terrible! ” cried Lucy, 

91 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


burying her face in her trembling hands with a 
quick sob. Then she thought, “ This is war. I 
never knew what it was until now,” 

In another hour fragments of the retreating 
French and American regiments passed through 
the town. Field artillery, too, whose wheels and 
galloping horses were almost unheard in the fire 
of the German guns. But the greater part of the 
troops which had so stubbornly held the trenches 
in front of the wood retreated around the edge of 
the town to their prepared defenses in the rear, pre- 
ferring to abandon Chateau-Plessis at once than to 
submit the two hospitals to a prolonged bombard- 
ment. 

Toward noon the noise of the gTms seemed to 
Lucy’s aching ears to have grown intolerable. Too 
restless to sit still, she visited her father’s room and 
found him peacefully asleep. She was glad of it, 
and yet she longed so desperately for the comfort of 
his companionship. Where were her mother and 
Cousin Henry? As for Bob, she dared not think 
of him. She went toward the door leading out into 
the little garden. The street was filled with dust, 
but the lines of fleeing people had passed on out of 
sight. She stepped onto the threshold and as she 
did so an orderly, opening a box of Red Cross 
dressings close by, let fall his tools and caught her 
arm in an iron grip. 


92 


THE FORTUNE OF WAR 


“ No, Miss! Not another step! ” he shouted. 

Lucy stared at the American’s hot, tired face, as 
he bent toward her to be heard in the uproar. He 
was a Hospital Coi’xds man whom she had spoken 
with often in the past few days. Now, in excuse 
for his rough handling, he beckoned her to look 
quickly through the doorway. As she did so the 
explosion of a German shell threw up a great heap 
of stones and earth not two hundred feet away, 
across the square. 

“ They’ve got our range,” he said, close to her 
ear. “ But this old building’s pretty solid. It will 
stand some hammering.” His voice was steady as 
ever and Lucy looked at him with respect and ad- 
miration in her frightened eyes, longing for his 
courage. But he had faced the enemy before. He 
had told her of service on Filipino and Mexican 
battle-fields. 

Would there be fighting in the streets, in which 
the Germans would be victorious? Lucy had seen 
fighting once in the streets of a village in the island 
of Jolo. But then the enemy had been Filipino 
savages, quickly overpowered by the soldiers, and 
she had been too little to do more than cling to her 
mother’s skirts in wonder. As she turned back 
toward the street another shell struck a house close 
to the hospital, leaving a huge, gaping hole in the 
brick wall when the smoke and dust cleared away. 

93 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Still she stood frozen to the spot, her heart beating 
in great throbs, helplessly waiting for she Imew not 
what. Presently Major Greyson’s hand was laid 
on her trembling arm and he was saying: 

“ Come away from here, Lucy. Come into your 
father’s room.” 

It was the only spot free from hurrying workers 
making their difficult way among beds too close 
together. Even here cots had been brought in and 
made ready for two more wounded officers. 
Colonel Gordon still slept on, unconscious of the 
day’s calamity, and Lucy breathed a quivering sigh 
of misery as her eyes rested on his peaceful face. 
Major Greyson led her to the window and pointed 
toward the sky above the square. “ It’s almost 
over,” he said. “ These last shots are only for 
bravado. Don’t you notice the slackening of the 
fire?” 

In the sky the clouds of dust and smoke were 
clearing, and Lucy did distinguish a lessening in the 
terrific wave of sound. Its quality had changed, 
too. As the German infantry engaged the retreat- 
ing troops, rifle and machine-gun fire was mingled 
with the bursting shells. In another few minutes 
the bombardment had sunk to single explosions at 
irregular intervals. Even at that awful moment 
the relief to her ears seemed almost like peace. 

“ Our batteries in the wood have been withdrawn 
94 


THE FORTUNE OF WAR 


to the new line, or silenced,” Major Greyson went 
on. “ The Germans will stop firing until their 
airmen get the range again.” He took Lucy’s 
hand in his and held it in a strong clasp. “ We’ll 
just have to bear up, Lucy, shan’t we? I have no 
fear for your courage. You’ve got the good Amer- 
ican stuff in you — the sort that never fails. We’ll 
show them their new enemy is worthy of their 
steel.” His eyes flashed in his haggard and 
anxious face as he searched the street with watch- 
ful gaze. “ We’ll do well enough here, you know. 
They’ll want us to look after their own wounded. 
With any luck in the counter-attack our troops will 
recover the town.” 

At these words a great flood of hope swept back 
to Lucy’s heart. The Germans could not hold 
Chateau-Plessis ! Then she would be brave. For 
only a few days she could face it as Bob would do. 

Suddenly she felt Major Greyson’s hand leave 
hers to steal about her shoulders, as though warn- 
ing her to summon all her strength of will. She 
looked through the broken window and that arm 
about her shoulder tightened. Up the street were 
advancing a squad of mounted officers, gray-clad 
figures with helmets like no others in the world. 
Behind them came a company of infantry. The 
noise of the guns had died down almost to silence. 
Lucy’s throat began to choke her until she pressed 
95 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


one cold hand against it, struggling for breath. 
Her eyes could not bear to look upon that hateful 
sight, and still she could not force herself to turn 
away. On they came, another company behind the 
first and still another. She was looking at the 
Kaiser’s soldiers, servants of the man who was the 
author of all this horror — who had made the world 
into a battle-field. These were a part of Ger- 
many’s army, of the greedy power which had 
roused even peaceful America at last in furious 
self-defense. It had torn apart the Gordons’ 
happy home, sent Bob to prison and to hourly peril, 
and brought her father close to death. 

Lucy did not put these flying thoughts in words. 
They passed through her mind in half-formed 
images of trembling dread and bitter indignation. 
From the hopeless conflict of her brain a despairing 
sigh escaped her lips, and Major Grey son’s eyes 
left the advancing troops to look at her. 

“ Come, Lucy, be a soldier,” he begged, pity 
shining in his eyes at sight of her white face, 
struggling for composure, beneath the childish mop 
of fair hair. Then as she turned her wide hazel 
eyes, filled with a desperate resolution, upon him, 
he said with stubborn confidence, “ This isn’t the 
end of things, you know, Lucy. This is only the 
dark hour before the dawn.” 


96 


CHAPTER V 


THE ENGLISH PRISONER 

As Major Greyson spoke, both he and Lucy 
turned again by a coininon impulse to the street, 
where the German mounted officers had advanced 
as far as the square in front of the hospital. Lucy 
looked at them more calmly now and for the first 
time saw ranks of stretcher-bearers and motor 
ambulances following in the wake of the companies. 
The men, too, who at her first terrified glance had 
seemed only pitiless visitors, were not formed into 
the full strength of companies. They marched in 
column of fours, but the columns were short and 
straggling ones. The men’s step was slow and 
heavy, their gray uniforms thickly covered with 
mud and dust and more than one bandaged arm or 
head showed among them. They crossed the 
broken pavement of the square with the springless 
tread of utter weariness, no light of triumph in 
their faces as they came to a halt in front of the old 
town hall of the recaptured town. 

“Huh! Pretty well done for!” ejaculated 
97 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Major Greyson, a kind of exultation in his voice 
as he stepped back from his place by the window. 
“ Not much of the conquering hero left just now! 
I must go to the officer in charge, Lucy. We are 
likely to have a hundred or so of German wounded 
quartered on us.” 

With a last reassuring pat on her shoulder he left 
the room, and Lucy stayed alone by the window. 
In a moment the nurse stole in behind her and, after 
a glance at Colonel Gordon, joined her in a silent, 
fascinated watch for the next move of the invaders. 
Two officers had dismounted and gone up the hos- 
pital steps. The other four wheeled about and 
rode across the square in ijie direction of the 
Mayor’s office and the French hospital. Not a 
human being except themselves was to be seen 
about the place. The remaining townspeople did 
not come out to act as audience to the German 
entrance. Perhaps the conquerors were just as 
well pleased that few eyes saw the second half of 
the column. The soldiers of the depleted com- 
panies at a second order now sprang forward and 
began helping to unload the motor-lorries packed 
with wounded, and to assist the stretcher-bearers 
to carry their burdens into the hospital. Some of 
the ambulances had turned across the square toward 
the other hospital, but long before Lucy stopped 
counting the wounded men the nurse beside her had 
98 


THE ENGLISH PRISONER 

hurried away to bear her part in the tremendous 
task. 

For a few minutes more Lucy stood there, but 
she was no longer watching without purpose. Her 
fear and horror she had resolutely fought down, not 
down for good, but under her control. She saw 
now clearly the hard, inevitable facts that Chateau- 
Plessis was in German hands, that the price of 
safety for the people in the hospital — for her father 
and the other wounded soldiers of the Allies — lay 
in caring for the enemy’s wounded, and that the 
task was very great. She was here in the midst 
of it, and here she must stay. She was strong and 
able to help, and in hard work she saw her only 
chance for any peace of mind. .With a determina- 
tion firmly taken she turned from the window and, 
dropping down beside her father’s cot, laid her face 
for a moment against his hand. He stirred a little, 
as though about to wake, but she rose cautiously 
from beside him and with a last look, as though for 
courage, at that brave soldier’s quiet face, went out 
into the wards. 

The hospital was filled with German soldiers 
carrying in their wounded, while the American 
staff did all in their limited power to bring order 
out of the confusion. Lucy took but one timid 
glance among them. She caught sight of Miss 
Pearse on one side of the hall kneeling by a mattress 
99 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


to unfold a blanket. Her face was flushed and 
weary, and her eyes bright with troubled emotion, 
but at Lucy’s approach she looked up at her to say. 
“ What is it, Lucy? What can I do? ” 

Lucy dropped down beside her and spoke quickly, 
knowing how little time could be spared to listen. 
“ That’s what I came to ask you. What can I do? 
May I help in the wards? You must let me do 
something. I’m strong and can stand a lot. Don’t 
say you won’t. I can do more than you think.” 

Miss Pearse smiled faintly at the eager rush of 
words. “ Of course I shan’t refuse,” she answered, 
and her eyes met Lucy’s with a silent tribute to that 
battle for courage she had fought and won. “You 
can’t work in the wards — at least not now. But 
there are, oh, so many things to do. Come with me 
to the steward’s room.” 

In after days, when Lucy had time to think it 
over, she dated from that hour the change in herself 
from a mere bewildered onlooker at the mighty 
struggle to a real sharer instead in the work that 
must be done. With that little part assigned to 
her she began dimly to understand the secret of the 
calm determined courage of those about her. They 
had their task to do, and nothing must turn them 
from it. 

This work went on, uninterrupted, while the Ger- 
mans took possession of the town. Not a very 

lOO 


/ 

THE ENGLISH PRISONER 

imposing possession with an almost decimated 
battalion of which the survivors had been hammered 
into exhaustion by the dogged French and Amer- 
ican resistance. But their presence, nevertheless, 
meant everything of the bitter humiliation and help- 
lessness of surrender to Chateau-Plessis. The hos- 
pital was now under German control, dependent on 
whatever supplies the conquerors accorded them, in 
fact, beneath the German heel. Just now, however, 
the hospital was as much a German as an Allied 
refuge. The major in command of the battalion 
assigned three German surgeons and a dozen order- 
lies to help in the enormous labor of caring for the 
five hundred patients crowded into the old town 
hall. V 

Early that afternoon Lucy started out under 
German orders on her first duty. In company with 
a French convalescent soldier, who carried two 
empty baskets like the one slung across her own 
shoulder, she left the hospital armed with permits 
from the German senior surgeon. She had faced 
the new chief, a big, gray-whiskered Boche with red 
face and bristling eyebrows, and had obtained his 
kind permission to walk two miles in the sun in 
search of dairy supplies to feed the German 
wounded. But if food for the enemy were not 
forthcoming the Allies’ wounded would be the first 
to suffer, so the two willing helpers, the little Amer- 

lOI 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


ican and the poilu, he still pale and limj)ing as he 
walked, did not linger on their errand. Beyond 
the square their way led through the desolate and 
deserted streets where the bombardment had been 
heaviest. This was the part of Chateau-Plessis 
from which the inhabitants had earliest fled, and not 
a human being was in sight, not even a pilfering 
German soldier, for the place had been in the Ger- 
man hands before, and they well knew there was 
little worth stealing left in it. 

Lucy’s heart beat hard and painfully as she 
neared once more the broad meadows beyond the 
outskirts of the town. How short a time it was 
since she had gone free and unmolested to that field 
to give Bob joyful welcome. She had thought it 
hard that day to bear the ceaseless roar of the 
artillery in her ears, yet then she had been on Allied 
ground, safe in the power of those she loved and 

trusted, while now She glanced up at the 

wounded poilu beside her and suddenly felt ashamed. 
He was breathing quickly as he limped along, for it 
was not a week since he had left his bed. Yet he 
had begged to do this little bit to help his comrades. 
She was so well and strong, surely she ought to be 
as brave as he. Just then he broke into her 
thoughts. 

“ Look, Mademoiselle,” he said, stopping to take 
breath as he pointed on ahead. “ There is the 
102 


THE ENGLISH PRISONER 


Boche patrol. They’ll want our papers when we 
pass, so get ’em ready.” 

At the corner of the last street before the lanes 
began, a little house remained almost undamaged. 
Before it paced a German sentry, and over the 
gabled roof the red, white and black flag hung life- 
less in the warm, still air. Lucy hastily drew out 
the papers from her blouse, for the sentry, at sight 
of the pedestrians, stopped his march and stood in 
the narrow street to bar the way. Inside the open 
door of the house a half dozen gray-clad flgures sat 
or stood, and one of them strolled to the doorway 
on hearing the sentry’s challenge. He was a short, 
burly captain of infantry, with keen, bright eyes 
and stiff, upstanding hair, his uniform, though 
lately brushed, still dirty and mud-stained after the 
desperate encounter of the past three days. He 
glanced down at Lucy with a look of surprise as he 
held out his hand for the papers which the sentry 
ran to present him. She kept her eyes on the 
ground, fearful lest some of her thoughts might 
show in her too expressive face, while the officer 
looked over the surgeon’s permits for Lucy Gordon, 
American non-combatant, and Jean Brelet, French 
prisoner of war, to pass freely for the good of the 
German Hospital Corps. After a moment he gave 
a short nod and handed them back to the sentry. 
But as Lucy, with a deep sigh of relief, snatched 
103 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


the papers from the sentry’s hand and was starting 
on again, she was sto^Dped by an imj)erious gesture 
from the doorway. A second officer had joined the 
first and while speaking he nodded his head in- 
quiringly toward Lucy and her companion. The 
infantry captain motioned the two to approach the 
steps, and addressing the poilu, who had obeyed 
the summons with obvious reluctance, asked him in 
slow, labored French, “Do you speak any Ger- 
man? ” 

Erelet shook his head with emphasis. “ Not the 
least bit in the world! ” he said exultantly. 

The German gave him a quick, contemptuous 
look, and forbearing to continue his questions, 
turned to Lucy. “ Sprechen Sie Deutsch, Frau- 
lein? ” he asked, with a shade more of civility in his 
masterful tone. 

Lucy longed with all her heart to answer as the 
poilu had done. At that moment she bitterly re- 
pented of the once pleasant hours spent in the com- 
pany of Elizabeth, a German servant at Governor’s 
Island, when she had learned something of the 
language Bob refused to bother with. In her un- 
certainty and confusion she stammered out the 
truth, “A little.” 

The German gave a nod of approval, the irrita- 
tion fading from his arrogant face. Without a 
word or glance vouchsafed to Brelet he motioned 
104 


THE ENGLISH PRISONER 


Lucy to come into the house. Most unwillingly she 
obeyed, with a backward imploring glance at her 
companion, which had the effect of making the good 
fellow start boldly forward to accompany her, only 
to be thrust back into the street by the watchful 
sentry. With beating heart and laiees that shook 
with ajDprehension, Lucy mounted the few steps that 
led into the principal room of the old house. The 
officers within made way for her with slight bows, 
and from the rear a Feldwebel,or Sergeant, brought 
a chair which he placed beside the table near the 
centre of the room. The captain signed to Lucy 
to sit down, and, taking a seat across the table from 
her, said at once, “ You are American, Fraulein. 
What are you doing here? ” 

Lucy’s momentary fright and weakness had 
swiftly given way to a great burst of hatred and 
indignation at finding herself subject to the com- 
mands of these triumphant enemies. She was too 
angry to be afraid, and it was in a confident and 
defiant voice that she returned, “ If you wish 
me to understand, you will have to speak more 
slowly.” 

The German glanced up at her with an air of 
surprise, a faint smile at the corners of his mouth, 
but he only said, “ Very well. Did you understand 
my question? ” 

“ Yes,” Lucy answered, looking across at him 
105 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


with steady eyes. “ I came here to see my father, 
who is badly wounded. I was going back to Eng- 
land when the town was taken.” 

The officer nodded without comment, then, turn- 
ing to the sergeant beside him, he ordered, “ Bring 
in the prisoner.” 

The junior officers in the room had taken seats 
about the table, with much clumping of boots and 
rattling of swords. The sergeant opened a door at 
the back of the room and, entering it, returned al- 
most at once, preceded by a tall young fellow in the 
khaki of the British army. He was covered with 
dirt and dust, even his face was stained with mud 
and the grime of powder, through which his blue 
eyes shone oddly out, above his lean, sunburned 
cheeks. He looked desperately weary, almost done 
for, but he squared his shoulders and crossed the 
room with a firm step. Lucy bit her lip until it 
bled to force back the tears of sympathy that rushed 
to her eyes. The young officer was not more than 
twenty years old; and how terribly like Bob he 
seemed, with that close-cropped brown hair, and the 
still boyish curve about his lips. Just as Bob must 
have appeared when he too, tired and despairing, 
faced his German captors without a friendly face 
to look upon. She met the young Englishman’s 
weary but undaunted gaze with such a look of eager 
friendliness that he stopped short, and for a second 
io6 


THE ENGLISH PRISONER 


the cold defiance left his face, and astonishment, 
confusion and a kind of welcoming light played 
over it. But it was hardly a moment. Room was 
made for him to stand before the table, and the 
German captain once more addressed Lucy, only 
this time with a frown of annoyance. 

“As you know, few English or Americans speak 
German.” He paused as though this fact was 
strange enough to ponder over, then continued, 
“As it happens, we do not any of us speak English. 
For that reason, we have need of you.” 

Lucy had already guessed that she was to act as 
interpreter, and this knowledge had relieved her 
vague fears of detention or imprisonment. But 
now her thoughts began to whirl again. Did she 
know enough German to fulfil her task to her 
captor’s satisfaction? More troubling still, would 
she be asked to put questions which the young Eng- 
lishman would not answer? At this her heart 
leaped with a sudden confidence. If there was any 
game of wits to be played, she thought that she and 
this boy with the brave blue eyes and steady lips 
would be more than a match for their pompous 
questioner. To make sure of her powers she asked 
the captain suddenly in English, “ Shall I trans- 
late for you? ” 

He stared frowningly at her, understanding not 
a word, nor did any signs of intelligence appear on 
107 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


the others’ faces. One little fair-haired lieutenant 
exclaimed, “Ach! English,” as though making a 
discovery, but could get no further, and the captain 
with a mutter of annoyance said sharply: 

“ Speak German, Fraulein.” 

With a faint excuse for her forgetfulness, Lucy 
repeated the question, to which the captain nodded 
agreement, adding still more sharply, “ Do your 
best, and keep your wits alert. The more he tells 
us, the better for him — ^you understand? ” 

As Lucy nodded in silence he commenced at 
once: “Ask him his name.” 

The question being translated, the Englishman 
answered, “Archibald Beattie, Captain, Royal In- 
fantry.” 

“Ask him what Army Corps he belongs to.” 

After a second’s hesitation, the prisoner an- 
swered, “ The eighteenth.” 

“ What division? ” 

“ The second.” 

“ Be careful ! ” said the German sharply. “ Tell 
him that division was moved toward Chateau- 
Thierry day before yesterday, and he was taken 
last night, before Argenton.” 

The Englishman shrugged his shoulders. “ That 
is my division,” he said calmly. “ They must have 
gone down to Chateau-Thierry without me.” 

The German gave his prisoner an ill-natured 
io8 


THE ENGLISH PRISONER 


glance when this was translated. “ What regi- 
ment? ” he persisted. 

“ The fifth.” 

This time Lucy repeated the number with some- 
thing like a cold chill down her back. The fifth 
regiment of the second division had passed with 
others through Chateau-Plessis three days ago, on 
its way south. She knew now what she had really 
never doubted, that the young Britisher was feeding 
false information into the brain of his questioner, 
and trusting to the Germans’ very imperfect knowl- 
edge of the disposition of the Allied troops at this 
point to make his bluff pass muster. And it had 
evidently done so in the case of the distant division 
he had joined on sueh short notice. The captain 
was not well enough informed to eontradiet him 
with mueh assurance. Bob had been right, Luey 
thought with triumph. The Allied airplanes had 
kept the enemy from observing the troops’ move- 
ments. With the same ascendancy in men, he had 
said, — with something even approaehing equality 
in numbers, not a foot of ground would have been 
captured. 

“ How long was your regiment at Argenton? ” 

While Luey translated the Englishman’s an- 
swers, she could not reflect, for to translate the Eng- 
lish into German was all she could manage. She 
spoke German far from well, though some terms 
109 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 

much alike in the two languages, such as corps,” 
“ regiment,” “ company,” helped her a little. But 
when she put the English questions to the prisoner, 
and in the pauses while the German captain pon- 
dered frowningly over his next words, she thought 
out and decided on her scheme. 

Her chance came with a long question. “ How 
was it that the British and American troops south 
of Argenton retired westward after their artil- 
lery? ” 

As Lucy translated this into rapid English, she 
looked hard at the prisoner, and, without pausing, 
added the words, Where are they sending 
you? ” 

The Englishman did not change countenance as 
he answered, “ The artillery had to move. Cannon 
are valuable. We stayed where we were posted 
until the guns were safe. No further than this. 
The old prison outside the town/" 

Trembling with joy at her success, Lucy trans- 
lated the first half of the reply. 

The German received it with a sneering smile, 
demanding promptly, “ How many prisoners do 
you claim were taken by your regiment? ” 

To this inquiry Lucy added, *"Are you certain? ” 
The Englishman answered, “About five thousand 
in three days’ fighting. Some French prisoners 
told me so. What are you doing here? "" 

no 


THE ENGLISH PRISONER 


He was trying her own game, anxious, she could 
see, to account for her presence in this place. 

Burning with eagerness to offer a few words of 
hope or comfort to the brave young officer, who 
brought Bob’s face so vividly before her, as well as 
to satisfy his own curiosity in her behalf, Lucy 
turned expectantly for the next question. But the 
German captain, with the gesture of a man who 
feels that he is wasting his time, rose noisily from 
his seat at the table. He gave a keen, unfriendly 
look at his prisoner, as though he would like to have 
compelled his confidence, but perhaps his keenness 
told him that not all the German army could ac- 
complish that. The four juniors had sprung to 
their feet beside him, and he waved a hand toward 
Lucy, saying shortly: 

“ That will do, Fraulein.” 

Lucy turned for one farewell glance at her ally, 
left in the enemy’s hands. His face lighted up for 
a second also, as though her sympathy had not been 
wasted. With relief, too, she guessed that she was 
quite free to leave. Then she was in the sunny 
street again, and patient Brelet, greeting her with 
a look of thankful joy, limped forward eagerly, 
saying: 

Mon Dieu, Mademoiselle! I don’t know what 
I thought waiting here! I would have gone for 
help, but where is help, when the Boches are on 

HI 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


top?” He wiped his hot face, shouldering the 
baskets once more, while Lucy hurried him on, ex- 
plaining in her difficult French: 

“ It’s all right, Brelet. They only wished me to 
speak German.” She breathed a deep sigh of re- 
lief, looking up toward the blue sky and the soft 
green leaves of the poplar grove before them. 
“ I’ll tell you about it, Brelet, but first let’s hurry 
to get the eggs from old Mere Breton. That’s her 
cottage, isn’t it, beyond the trees? ” 

The long afternoon was almost over when Lucy’s 
tired feet once more climbed the steps of the hos- 
pital. Her arms ached with the weight of her 
basket of eggs and vegetables, and her head, too, 
with the heat of the sun and the throb of anxious 
thoughts. With a blank depression stealing over 
her, she made her way among the crowd of never- 
resting workers and found herself at last by her 
father’s room. Miss Pearse was just coming out, 
and at sight of Lucy her face wakened to a glad 
relief as she exclaimed, “ Oh, thank Heaven, you’re 
back! I couldn’t think what had happened, you 
were gone so long. Were you all right? ” 

“ Yes, I’ll tell you about it later,” said Lucy 
briefly. “ How is Father? ” 

“ He has been awake all the afternoon and asking 
for you. He doesn’t know yet that the Germans 
have the town. In another day it won’t hurt him 

II2 


THE ENGLISH PRISONER 


to hear it — he’s getting well so fast. Don’t let him 
guess it to-night, though, Lucy. He thinks you are 
going back to England to-morrow. He has fallen 
asleep just now, but go in and sit by him. He’ll 
wake again before long.” 

Lucy nodded, looking at the young nurse’s tired 
face. “ What an awful day you’ve had. Miss 
Pearse ! Oh, I’m going to help more to-morrow.” 

“We have a few women now, of those left in the 
town, to help us, so we are better off than we ex- 
pected,” was the still cheerful answer. “And you 
have helped, Lucy. Some one would have had to 
take that long walk if you hadn’t been here.” 

Lucy smiled faintly, not convinced that she had 
done much, and went softly into her father’s room. 
His cot was sheltered by a screen since morning, for 
the beds of two other officers, British and American, 
had been made room for in the little space. More 
than anything in the world, Lucy longed now to 
find her father awake and filled with all his old 
strength of purpose. She wanted to tell him the 
whole dreadful story of the town’s capture and to 
ask what the chances really were that the Allies 
would get it back again. She wanted to hear him 
share her grief and anger, and lay down the law of 
hope and courage with unshaken resolution. She 
needed him to stand by her in spirit, that she might 
lean on his strength of mind, in spite of his weak- 

113 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


ness of body. But she could not have her wish. 
He had fallen asleep, ignorant of her desperate 
need. Overcome at last with the weight of a long 
day’s crushing anxiety, the lonely little girl dropped 
down beside the cot and buried her hot face in her 
father’s pillow. 

Presently she heard footsteps approaching, but 
indifferent to everything she did not move. Then 
some one knelt down on the floor behind her, and 
two arms stole gently about her trembling shoul- 
ders. For a moment Lucy could not believe she 
really heard the familiar voice that, filled with the 
tenderest affection, cried softly in her ear, “ Miss 
Lucy ! Dear Miss Lucy ! Is it so I see you again 
at last? ” 


IT4 


CHAPTER VI 


A GERMAN ALLY 

“ Elizabeth ! ” Lucy’s lips could hardly frame 
the word, as with bewildered gaze she stared into 
the face so close to hers. 

There were the same bright dark eyes, filled with 
shrewd kindliness, and the smiling, patient mouth. 
Lucy seized hold of the hands that held her shoul- 
ders to make sure she was not dreaming, and the 
touch of Elizabeth’s thin work-roughened fingers 
made her presence real. The strangeness of their 
meeting was for that moment quite forgotten. 
Lucy felt nothing but an overwhelming relief and 
joy as her kind old nurse’s arms once more went 
around her. She was no longer alone with her sad 
thoughts in the gloomy twilight. Elizabeth, who 
had loved her and shared her worries for ten years 
back, who had said good-bye to Bob with tears that 
day on Governor’s Island, was here to help and 
comfort her. Lucy forgot Karl’s treachery,’ re- 
membering only that Elizabeth had saved Bob from 
her husband’s hands. How often had both Lucy 

’ See “ Captain Lucy and Lieutenant Bob.” 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


and her mother longed to tell her of their gratitude! 
She leaned against Elizabeth’s kind shoulder and 
shed a few tears of weariness and joy, giving way 
to her feelings for a brief comforting moment. 
Then she sat up and wiped her eyes. 

“ How did you get here, Elizabeth? Oh, if 
things go on happening this way I won’t be sur- 
prised at anything! ” 

“ Many days have I been here. Miss Lucy,” 
Elizabeth answered, as she too wiped away tears of 
quiet rejoicing. “ Since the Germans hold the 
town before, was I here, but only to-day have I 
come to ask if I may help in the hospital.” 

“And, Karl — where is he? ” Lucy stammered 
over the question. 

“ He is with his regiment, not far off.” Lucy 
thought that Elizabeth hesitated before she added, 
“ I could not follow him, so here I came from Petit- 
Bois, working with the wounded, when the Ger- 
mans take Chateau-Plessis the first time. Already 
I saw you once. Miss Lucy, the day of the bat- 
tle — when you watched the airplanes in the 
square.” 

In a flash Lucy remembered the face among the 
crowd, and the eyes she had fancied were watching 
her. “That was it! I saw you, too, Elizabeth. 
At least I felt sure that some one was looking at 
me. Why didn’t you let me see you? ” 

ii6 


A GERMAN ALLY 


“ I thought better not, Miss Lucy. The Ger- 
mans must keej) very quiet while the French and 
Americans were here.’’ Elizabeth’s voice shook a 
little as she spoke, and in sjDite of herself, Lucy 
felt an unreasoning pity for her as the little Ger- 
man woman went on, “ I thought maybe you learn 
from Mr. Bob that I was here, — but you have not 
seen him, no? I saw him once, about a month 
back.” 

The words were on Lucy’s lips to tell Elizabeth 
of Bob’s visit to Chateau-Plessis the day before the 
town’s capture, but before they were spoken she 
checked herself. The trust and affection of nearly 
ten years’ companionship were not ties lightly cast 
aside, but now, her first childish delight at Eliza- 
beth’s presence over, a barrier rose between them — 
strong and impassable. Elizabeth was a German, 
and the wife of a German soldier. Summoning the 
prudence she had so nearly forgotten, Lucy kept 
silent, and i^ressed her lips close together. The 
vision of the German officer questioning the young 
Englishman came before her eyes. What might 
her unconsidered words mean to Bob? 

Elizabeth’s expressive face looked both hurt and 
downcast at Lucy’s sudden silence, of which the 
meaning was plain enough. But she made no com- 
plaint, and, pointing toward Colonel Gordon’s cot, 
beside which they sat on the floor, said softly, 
117 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ Your father wakes now, Miss Lucy. Already 
have I talked with him to-day.” 

“ Did you stay with him this afternoon, Eliza- 
beth? ” asked Lucy, reaching out to clasx^ her old 
nurse’s hand in sudden remorse at her own sus- 
picion. For had not Elizabeth saved Bob’s life? 

“ Yes,” Elizabeth nodded. “ I stay with him a 
little while.” She rose to her feet, looking toward 
the cot where the wounded officer had begun to stir 
in waking. “ I leave you with him now,” she said, 
and with a lingering glance at Lucy from her brown 
eyes, went quietly out of the room. 

Lucy turned eagerly to her father, hardly wait- 
ing for him to open his eyes before she exclaimed, 
“ Oh, Father, I’ve seen Elizabeth, and she said 
she had talked to you! Isn’t it wonderful to find 
her here? ” 

Colonel Gordon smiled, settling his big, lean 
shoulders among the pillows as he gave an under- 
standing nod to his daughter’s quick words. But 
Lucy had paused suddenly in her outburst of joy 
over Elizabeth’s presence. She remembered Miss 
Pearse’s warning, and with a pang of fear lest some 
unconsidered word escape her, realized that her 
father was still ignorant of the town’s capture. 

Unless Elizabeth But her father’s first words 

put her mind at rest on that score. 

“ I saw her for only a minute after I woke up,” 

ii8 


A GERMAN ALLY 


he said, turning on his side with a slight painful 
elfort, to look into Lucy’s face. “ But that was 
long enough to thank her for what she did last year. 
She told me that she had been allowed to help in 
the hospital, and that she hoped to see you. How 
she got here I can’t imagine, nor why they trust 
her to work among the wounded — though we both 
know there couldn’t be found a better nurse.” 

Lucy was silent, afraid to answer, since she could 
not tell the truth — that Elizabeth was trusted be- 
cause the hospital was in the hands of her com- 
patriots. Colonel Gordon did not notice her con- 
fusion as he continued earnestly: 

“ I’m very glad she’s here — however she came — 
for your sake, Lucy. She is devoted to you, be- 
yond all doubt, and I won’t be quite so uneasy with 
her here to look after you. Greyson seems al- 
mighty slow about getting you off to Calais. I 
suppose he can’t help it. I can imagine what the 
state of transportation is, but surely you won’t have 
to stay much longer. Of course, if it were possible 
to get right on, your mother and Henry would have 
been here long ago.” 

He paused, breathing a little hard, and frown- 
ing, unreconciled, as he silently considered the ob- 
stacles to Lucy’s departure. 

Lucy sat wretchedly silent, loiowing the truth to 
be a hundred times worse than what already greatly 
119 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


troubled him. In a moment he found breath to 
speak again. 

“ Lucy,” he said thoughtfully, “ I said I knew 
Elizabeth was devoted to you, and so she is. But 
don’t forget for a moment, however kindly we feel 
toward her, that her country is our enemy. We 
have good proof that she would not harm Bob, even 
at Karl’s command, but that is a personal affection 
with her. It does not mean she would not harm the 
Allies’ cause. You must be on the watch lest you 
speak a word that might be repeated to the enemy’s 
advantage.” 

Lucy murmured her agreement as her father, his 
emphatic tone changing to one of wonder, said 
again, “ Why they allow her to work here I can’t 
imagine. I must ask Greyson.” 

“ You’re tired. Father,” said Lucy, getting up 
after a moment from the floor beside the cot, as 
Colonel Gordon lay wearily back after his pro- 
longed talk. Her voice shook a little with threat- 
ening tears, for it seemed dreadful to her that he 
should not know the truth, and that she should help 
to deceive him, though common sense told her it was 
wise and necessary. He would certainly sleep 
more peacefully that night thinking the Allies in 
possession of the town. But it was a deception 
which could not be kept up much longer. 

She bade him good-night with a brave attempt at 
120 


A GERMAN ALLT 


cheerfulness, and went out into the big ward, which 
was just dimmed by approaching twilight. Eliza- 
beth was carrying a heavy basket of Red Cross sup- 
plies across the hall to the storeroom, and Lucy, 
without asking permission, ran up to her and seized 
one of the straw handles, taking half the weight on 
her own arm. “ Go on; I’m going to help,” she 
said briefly. Elizabeth obeyed, glancing back with 
troubled solicitude at the serious, determined face 
of the little girl she knew so well, while Lucy, with 
that familiar figure before her, bringing swift 
memories of happy days at home, looked down the 
rows of wounded men and wondered again if this 
could all be real. 

That night, in spite of the welcome silence of the 
guns, Lucy’s natural fear and dread at the strange 
fate that had befallen her brought wakefulness and 
feverish dreams. But she was too worn out to lie 
awake long, and Miss Pearse’s footsteps, moving 
about in the gray dawn, roused her from deep sleep. 
She struggled at that moment with desperate 
drowsiness, intensified by the longing to fall back 
where the bitter truth could be forgotten. But she 
fought hard against her weakness and, fearful of 
yielding, sprang out of bed and plunged her face 
into cold water. Her sleepy eyes blinked stupidly 
back at her from the shadowy mirror as she vigor- 
ously rubbed away the drops, but her resolution was 

I2I 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


triumphant. To-day she meant to work, that by 
nightfall she might feel the satisfaction of having 
done what she could to help — the only thing that 
was worth doing here. 

The guns had commenced again with intermittent 
bursts of firing, but they were not so close now, and 
the vibration of the air not so terrific. The Allied 
guns were turned toward Chateau-Plessis since the 
capture, and the German batteries had found new 
emplacement outside the town’s western edge; the 
edge nearest to the railways and the channel. Lucy 
looked from the window toward the eastern sky, 
where the clouds were gleaming with a soft, pearly 
light. There were no bursting shells to mar the 
sunrise to-day. All was quiet on this side now. 
She glanced down at the street, along which a dozen 
German soldiers were strolling. A few shouted 
words reached her ears, and once more she wished 
with all her heart she did not understand that lan- 
guage of which every word had grown hateful. 
Then suddenly she remembered Captain Beattie 
and the possibility of help to him which that knowl- 
edge had put into her hands. It would give her 
glorious satisfaction to bring the enemy’s own 
tongue to use against them. She had first, though, 
to learn the whereabouts of the old prison to which 
he had been taken. 

She quickly finished dressing and joined the two 
122 


A GERMAN ALLY 


nurses, who saw her with surprise and a little pro- 
test on Miss Pearse’s j)art against her early rising. 
She did not scold much though, and seemed glad of 
the promise of Lucy’s help. “ I’ll give you work to 
do the minute you are ready for it,” she said in an- 
swer to Lucy’s eager demand, as they crossed the 
street and climbed the hospital steps under the in- 
spection of the gray-uniformed sentry. “ Go in 
and speak to your father first, and then we’ll see.” 

Lucy entered the little room softly, mindful of 
the other wounded officers as well as of her father, 
and found Colonel Gordon awake, with eyes turned 
toward the door. He looked rested and stronger 
with the improvement each day now brought, but 
his lips were firmly set, as Lucy had often seen them 
when he was thinking out a hard piece of work, 
and his smile was but a faint one as he greeted 
her. 

“ Did you sleep well. Father? Are you all 
right? ” she asked, stammering a little because she 
hated to remember the unhappy secret between 
them. 

Colonel Gordon’s keen, far-seeing eyes studied 
her flushed and anxious face as he answered 
quietly, “Yes, I’m all right, little girl. You 
may drop the camouflage now. I know we’ve lost 
the town.” 

“ Oh, Father, who told you? I didn’t,” cried 
123 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Lucy, dropping down beside him, a great rush of 
relief overpowering all her fears. He knew the 
worst and they could share it together, and he had 
borne the news with his old, unshakable courage. 
Lucy thought of what Bob had said more than four 
years ago at Fort Douglas, when the Mexican 
rebels rose over night, threatening the border. 
“ Father may get excited if breakfast is late, but 
when anything is really wrong, he’s all right.” 

“ Greyson told me,” said Colonel Gordon. I 
suppose he thought I should guess it anyhow, when 
I began asking him about Elizabeth. Funny 
idea — not letting me know.” He spoke with a 
faint scorn for the ways of the Medical Corps, for- 
getting, as a man on the road to recovery is apt to 
do, how ill he had been only a few days before. 

“ I wondered what in thunder was the matter 
that they couldn’t get you off,” he went on. “ Poor 
little daughter — it’s pretty tough luck.” His face 
was drawn with anxiety as he reached out a hand 
and caught hers in a strong clasp, but she broke in 
eagerly: 

“I’m all right, Father! Please don’t feel so 
worried. I’m working in the hospital, and, hon- 
estly, you don’t know how glad and proud I am — 
now the scary part is getting better— that I can 
be of use here.” 

“ It can’t be helped,” was her father’s slow and 
124 


A GERMAN ALLT 


almost unheeding answer. “ Greyson tells me the 
enemy has left the hospital pretty much in our own 
hands. They are rather too tired to bother us/’ he 
said, a flash of satisfaction lighting his face. “ I 
know that much from the action in which I was hit. 
Their advance is made with a desperately driven 
force that leaves them limp and done for when it is 
over. A couple of million Americans will turn 
the great tide. Long before that time our coun- 
ter-attack should free the town — but mean- 
while, you poor little girl, you’re in the German 
lines.” 

“ I’m quite used to it now! ” Lucy insisted, not 
realizing the absurdity of her words in her longing 
to reassure her father’s keenly suffering mind. 
“And Elizabeth is here, you know — she will take 
care of me.” 

“ Yes — how thankful I am for that,” said Colonel 
Gordon quickly. 

“ Here comes Major Greyson, so I’ll leave you,” 
said Lucy, rising from her place as the surgeon 
entered for his morning visit. “ I’ll go and get my 
breakfast.” 

In the little dining-room she found Elizabeth 
setting the table with plates and spoons. The sight 
was such a reminder of breakfast-time on Gov- 
ernor’s Island that, forgetting all her repugnance 
to Elizabeth’s German sympathies, she threw her 

125 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


arms around her old nurse’s thin, little shoulders, 
and gave her a hug for a morning greeting. Eliza- 
beth turned a delighted face toward her, exclaim- 
ing: 

“ Good-morning, dear Miss Eucy! How early 
you are up ! Come, in this chair sit, and I will get 
you the best I can.” 

It seemed very pleasant to sit down and be waited 
on by Elizabeth’s deft fingers, but the strangeness 
of her being there had not yet passed from Lucy’s 
mind and she said, wistfully, “ Oh, Elizabeth, if we 
were only back at home. Father and Mother and 
Bob and William and you and I. Wouldn’t it be 
great? ” 

‘‘ That will come again, Miss Lucy,” suggested 
Elizabeth hopefully. But Lucy, unable to say 
frankly, “ Not while there are enough Germans left 
alive to fight,” lifted a spoonful of weak cocoa to 
her lips in silence. 

‘‘And William — how he is?” asked Elizabeth, 
stopping her work to make the inquiry with eager 
affection in her eyes. 

“ He is well, and, thank goodness, safe at home,” 
sighed Lucy, seeing again before her the forlorn, 
stumbling little children of the refugees from 
Chateau-Plessis. 

Miss Pearse came in presently and joined her, 
famished after an hour’s hard work. “ I have a 
126 


A GERMAN ALLT 


job all ready for you, Lucy,” she said, when she had 
taken a sip of hot coffee and eaten a piece of black 
bread. “It is a tiresome one, but very neces- 
sary.” 

“ I’ll do anything,” said Lucy quickly. 

“ Our hospital garments are falling into rags, 
and no one has any time to mend them. Elizabeth 
has been helping, but I am going to send her for 
Mere Breton’s supplies this morning while you stay 
here and sew in her stead.” 

Miss Pearse had heard all about Lucy’s ad- 
venture of the day before, and did not wish her sent 
on the same errand again, until the Germans should 
have their own interpreters, or officers who spoke 
the barbarous English tongue. In any case, Eliza- 
beth could serve their purpose. Lucy had also told 
Miss Pearse of the years the German woman had 
spent with the Gordon family, and of the never-to- 
be-forgotten service she had rendered them. Miss 
Pearse had shown both interest and sympathy, won- 
dering much, like Lucy, at the strange chance of 
war which had brought these two old friends to- 
gether, on such hard terms for friendship. Like 
Colonel Gordon, she warned Lucy repeatedly 
against speaking unguardedly before her old nurse. 
“ She is the most German person I ever saw,” she 
said with conviction. “ She has all their good 
qualities, so I shouldn’t be surprised if she had some 
127 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE, 


of their bad ones. Anyway, you may be sure her 
husband could make her try to worm out informa- 
tion about the troops. You don’t know what 
trifling little facts they can make use of. Don’t 
answer any questions about what troops were in 
the town, or anything like that.” 

“ She hasn’t asked me any,” said Lucy. “ She 
has been here herself since the last German occupa- 
tion, anyhow. But I’ll be careful.” 

She was thinking over these warnings as she sat, 
half an hour later, by the narrow windows of the 
nurses’ room, mending long rips and tears in pillow- 
cases and pajamas. Outside the window the Ger- 
man sentry paced the little garden by the budding 
rose-bushes and crumbling walls, and within the 
hospital the workers continued their never-ending 
task. While she meditated, Elizabeth came out 
from the side door into the garden, carrying two 
baskets on her arms, and with a nod to the sentry 
passed quickly out through the ruined gate. 

She could have obtained Brelet’s company and 
assistance, but she had started off alone with her 
big baskets. Lucy, as she looked after her, thought 
she guessed why. The little German woman sus- 
pected that the poilu would have gone with her most 
unwillingly. 

Outside the gate Elizabeth turned east through 
the same deserted streets which led toward the 
128 


A GERMAN ALLT 


cottages in the lanes and to the meadows beyond the 
town. She walked quickly, for the supplies were 
urgently needed. Besides, she had worked so hard 
all her life that active occupation had become second 
nature to her. Bob had once said, “ Elizabeth 
never sits down to rest — only to work more easily 
that way.” She found a path among the broken 
stone with patient care, for her shoes were old and 
gave little protection to her feet. Once she stopped 
to exchange a word with a German sentry during a 
lull in the firing. When she neared the edge of the 
town she was challenged by the guard in front of 
the Headquarters building, but her German tongue 
and written permission won her ready passage. At 
the border of the meadow stood a little improvised 
shack, put up to accommodate a guard and a field 
telephone, in case of any alarm from this side of the 
town. In front of it a corporal was idly walking 
about, stopping to stare at Elizabeth as she hurried 
by. She called out a good-morning to him, which 
he answered with the inquiry: 

“ Where are you going, Frau, to fill those big 
baskets? ” 

Elizabeth nodded over toward Mere Breton’s 
cottage, hidden behind its little grove of apple and 
plum trees, of which many were reduced to black- 
ened and leafless trunks. The cottage itself had 
been twice struck, but the sturdy old Frenchwoman 
129 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


refused to abandon it, and in the deadly rain and 
thunder of bursting shells had gone on cultivating 
her garden, and coaxing her frightened hens to eat 
and fatten for the wounded poilus in the hospitals. 
Now she feared they would nearly all go down 
German throats, but Lucy had the day before tried 
her best, in her halting French, to convince Mere 
Breton that only by feeding the Boches could their 
own people expect a share. 

Elizabeth looked up at the blue, cloud-flecked 
sky, away from the shattered trees of the wood in 
front, as she crossed the meadow. Her eyes, al- 
ways anxious and watchful these days, felt a relief 
in turning from the scarred earth to the untroubled 
heavens. But this war is not only on the earth, as 
she realized with a swift start, when out from be- 
hind the clouds darted two flying sj)ecks which hung 
poised above the meadow, the sun just touching 
their tiny wings. She hurried on, reached IMere 
Breton’s house, and found the old woman in the 
garden among her cabbages. Elizabeth did not 
know a word of French, but she held out the hos- 
pital baskets with a pleasant nod and smile to cover 
the deficiency of language. Mere Breton’s sharp 
blue eyes, from beneath her white cap, gave the 
German woman a look of bitter hostility, quite un- 
touched by the smile, which faded from Elizabeth’s 
lips unanswered. Mere Breton took the baskets, 
130 


A GERMAN ALLT 


trudged off to fill them, and presently returned 
them in silence. Her thoughts were as plain as 
though she had si^oken. She Imew that not an egg 
nor a fowl would go to her poilus with a Boche for 
messenger. Elizabeth nodded good-bye without 
attempting any further friendly advances, and 
started on her hot walk back, this time weighed 
down with a heavy load. She looked quickly up at 
the sky again as she came out from beneath the 
trees, for the noise of an airplane was now dis- 
tinctly heard as it circled not more than half a mile 
above her head. As she stared up, squinting in the' 
sunlight, the machine dived suddenly and flew 
around the meadow, hardly two hundred yards 
above the earth. 

Elizabeth stood j)aralyzed between an impulse to 
drop down ux)on the grass and another to run for 
shelter. At the observation post behind her the 
corporal had rushed inside to the telephone. "No 
batteries were stationed at this ]Doint, for the Ger- 
mans counted on the Allies not caring to drop 
bombs on Chateau-Plessis, but a telephone call 
could bring anti-aircraft guns to bear on intmding 
planes from the north of the town. While Eliza- 
beth stood frozen to the spot, the airplane above 
her, as though scorning to recognize the fact that 
Chateau-Plessis was in German hands, flew over 
her so close that she could see the glistening paint 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


of the American emblems on its wings and tail, and 
the pilot, sitting alone in his little monoplane, 
leaned over the side and looked at her. 

Elizabeth let fall her baskets, heedless, she who 
was always so careful, of the fragile provisions 
within. The face looking down with eager eyes 
from a hundred feet above her was Bob Gordon’s. 
He reached toward his feet, and, through the roar- 
ing of the propeller, Elizabeth heard a wild shout of 
warning directed to her from the observation post 
behind. But no bomb was flung from the plane 
which had her at its mercy. Instead she was sud- 
denly enveloped in a shower of papers fluttering 
down toward the grass from the pilot’s hand. As 
she brushed them dazedly from her shoulders. Bob 
leaned out once more and threw a last paper, only 
this one was crushed into a ball with a hasty pressure 
of his fingers. Then the anti-aircraft guns crashed 
out, and the Nieuport rose like a bird and winged 
its way toward the sun, dropping another shower of 
papers as it mounted, which scattered over the 
green, daisy-starred surface of the field. The balls 
whistled through the air, but before any accurate 
shot was possible, the daring little scout had dis- 
appeared behind a drifting cloud beyond the reach 
of fire. 

Elizabeth had picked up the ball of paper as soon 
as it touched the grass. With trembling hands, 
132 


A GERMAN ALLT 


while she watched the Nieuport make its swift 
escape, she smoothed out the wrinkled sheet and 
held it against the sunlight. 

“ What’s that you have there, Donnerwetter! 
asked an angry voice behind her, and the corporal, 
red-faced and panting, looked over her shoulder, 
then stooped to pick up another of the leaflets. 

“ Some more of President Wilson’s talk,” said 
Elizabeth, still looking with a critical air at the 
printed sheet before her. “ But Himmel! ” she 
added, turning to the corporal with an anxious 
shake of the head. “For a moment I thought I 
was done for. I did not know what to do! ” 

“ It was no time to stand staring, like a dummy,” 
was the corporal’s comment. “ Come, Frau, help 
me gather up this trash, and I’ll burn it and give the 
impertinent Yankee that for his pains.” 

Elizabeth nodded, leaning down to pick up the 
papers thickly scattered over the grass. Her heart 
was beating so hard she could hardly conceal her 
hurried breathing, in spite of her calm and docile 
exterior as she obeyed the corporal’s orders. She 
gathered up the crumpled sheet together with the 
others, crumpling them all into a wad before hand- 
ing them to her companion. She had seen all she 
wanted in those two or three minutes while she held 
the paper against the sunlight. The printed leaves 
were copies in English and German of a part of 

133 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


President Wilson’s speech made in New York on 
the 18 th of May. But the paragrajph that Elizabeth 
read had been pricked with pinholes before it was 
dropped at her feet. It was as follows: 

There are two duties with which we are 
face to face. The first duty is to win the 
w^ir. And the second duty, that goes hand 
in hand with it, is to win it greatiy and 
worthily, showing the teal quality of our 
power not ©niy, but the real quality of 
our purpose and of ourselves. Of course, 
the first duty, the duty that we must keep 
in the foreground of our thought until it is 
accomplished, is to win the war. I have 
heard gentlemen recently say that we must 
get five million men ready. Why limit 
it to five million? 

Against the glowing sunlight Elizabeth read 
Bob’s message: “ I shall try to land to-night.” 

Back in the hospital Lucy worked hard at the big 
pile of garments with their long, ragged tears. 
Her neck ached and her fingers, after two hours, 
but she kept steadily at it, with the satisfying sense 
of being one of the hospital workers ; of doing, right 
where the product of her hands was so urgently 
needed, what she had often done from far away. 
When the morning was half over Elizabeth came 
back through the garden, walking slowly with her 

134 


A GERMAN ALLY 


loaded baskets, and presently she came empty- 
handed into the room where Lucy was. 

“ Hello, Elizabeth ! ” exclaimed Lucy, tired of 
her own thoughts and welcoming her old nurse 
with a smile. “Are you coming to sew with me? 
I’d love some one to talk to.” 

“ Yes, for a few minutes I help you,” said Eliza- 
beth in a quick, earnest voice that made Lucy look 
up at her curiously as she continued. “ Because I 
something have to tell you that no one must hear, 
so I sit by you and softly speak.” 

Always when Elizabeth was excited her English 
grew worse, and now Lucj^ astonished at her words 
and manner, stopped sewing and asked hurriedly, 
“ What is it, Elizabeth? Oh, tell me quickly — 
there’s nobody to hear.” 

Not convinced of this, Elizabeth gave a sharp 
glance outside the open door and, taking a torn 
garment on her lap, drew her chair close to Lucy’s 
by the window before she answered. “ I have Mr. 
Bob seen, and he gave me a message.” 

“ Bob ! ” gasped Lucy, her terrified eyes devour- 
ing Elizabeth’s face. “ Oh, what is he doing here!” 

“ He is not here now,” said Elizabeth quickly. 
“ He has got safe away.” With her needle poised 
between her fingers while she forgot all pretense 
of sewing, she told Lucy in a voice just above a 
whisper of her morning’s adventure. 

135 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Lucy heard her in stupefied silence, only her 
glowing cheeks and shining eyes giving sign of her 
overpowering excitement. Other feelings, too, be- 
side joy at this news of her brother, showed in her 
face. A puzzled wonder was strongest, with the 
realization of her old nurse’s German sympathies. 
When Elizabeth came to the part of her story where 
Bob contrived to drop his message and she to 
decipher it, Lucy could contain herself no longer. 

“ But how did you know there was a message 
hidden there? How could Bob Imow you would 
find it? ” she burst out, speaking but a part of her 
confused thoughts aloud. 

For answer Elizabeth first looked earnestly into 
her face, as though she read clearly what Lucy 
would not say — that she wondered greatly at Bob’s 
trust in her — then putting down her needle clasped 
her thin hands anxiously together. “ Miss Lucy,” 
she said a little shakily, “ I hope you believe me, 
because I nothing tell you but the truth. Did I 
not tell you I saw Mr. Bob here a month ago, when 
the Allies take the town? At that time we talk, 
and Mr. Bob explain to me a way that he could a 
message send, if he needs. He have the charge to 
let fall those papers — you know — with speeches of 
the president, over the German lines. He show 
me how with a pin he could a message make that no 
one would see, if they had no thought for it. When 
136 


A GERMAN ALLT 


he said this he spoke of war news only — of course 
he not think then that you be left here if the Ger- 
mans take the town/’ 

“ But, Elizabeth,” Lucy stammered, more at sea 
than ever, “ he arranged a cipher with you? He 
spoke to you of war news? ” 

“ Yes,” Elizabeth nodded. “ I know what you 
would say. Miss Lucy. You wonder that he tell 
me, but it was first me who tell him something.” 
Elizabeth’s dark eyes were filled with pain and sor- 
row as she looked into Luey’s face and whispered, 
“No longer do I wish for Germany to win.” 

Never in ten long years had Lucy doubted Eliza- 
beth’s word, but now a wretched fear shot through 
her. Did she dare trust blindly to Karl’s wife? 
But even while she hesitated, the kind, steady, 
honest gaze of those dark eyes swept her last doubts 
away. With impetuous remorse and thanksgiving 
she reached out her hands and clasped Elizabeth’s 
closely, while her tongue struggled for words to 
express her new-born joy and confidence. 

“ Oh, Elizabeth, I’m glad! I’m so glad!” was 
all she said, but her face spoke for her, and Eliza- 
beth’s anxious eyes shone with relief and friendli- 
ness. 

“ You believe me, dear Miss Lucy — you Imow I 
speak truth? ” she asked eagerly. Then at Lucy’s 
swift assent she continued earnestly, “ I tell you 

137 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


all the truth, and then you see I do not deceive you. 
Miss Lucy, I do not love France or England, or 
even America better than my Fatherland. Ger- 
many I love, and always will I love her. Only, 
Miss Lucy, now is no longer with us the dear coun- 
try I before knew.” 

A look of horror flashed into her kind face as 
she said heavily: 

“ I have things seen that never could I tell you 
of. At first I believe my countrymen who say the 
English prisoners are guilty of crimes — for I never 
any Englishmen knew. I think perhaps they de- 
serve the deadly punishment. But when America 

send her soldiers against us ” Elizabeth’s 

voice trembled. “ When Mr. Bob so nearly was 
given up to death ; when they tell me lies of how the 
Americans, they are worse than any — I believe 
them not! Too long was I in America to be so 
fooled, and now I know it is a cruel war that has 
brought her against us. For those men who have 
put the world on fire, who have made to die those 
many innocent children — oh. Miss Lucy, better they 
are beat and conquered by America, and so may 
God let the old Germany live again ! ” 

The little German woman’s low, cautious voice 
shook with earnestness. Her clasped hands opened 
and closed in quick, restless gestures so unlike quiet, 
steady Elizabeth that Lucy’s heart beat with pity 

138 


A GERMAN ALLY 


and understanding. In Elizabeth’s simple nature 
love of country was very strong, and her disillu- 
sionment, at returning to war-time Germany, very 
bitter. Yet she still found courage to hope for 
better things. Lucy marveled at her patient faith, 
but she could not at all put her thoughts into words, 
nor indeed find thoughts that would not hurt more 
than console, so after a look of warm affection she 
sat silent. But in a moment curiosity prompted 
her to ask: 

“ How about Karl, Elizabeth? Does he know 
how you feel?” 

A shadow settled once more on Elizabeth’s face, 
but she answered quietly, “ Karl is very angry with 
me, INIiss Lucy ; but it is not that he knows I would 
help the Allies now.” 

“ Then why is he angry? ” But even as Lucy 
asked the question she knew the answer. “ Is it 
because of Bob? ” she faltered, and, seeing she had 
guessed, Elizabeth nodded. 

“ Somehow, Karl find out that it is my fault Mr. 
Bob was not taken as a spy. Not yet will he for- 
give it, but I not think he feel so always; and still 
if he need me I go to him.” 

“ Where is he now? ” asked Lucy, thinking how 
little Karl deserved such faithfulness and ashamed 
that she had ever wondered at Bob’s trusting Eliza- 
beth so entirely. 


139 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


He is in Brussels — cook in a hospital. He is 
safe, Miss Lucy. I not think I could work to help 
America to win if Karl was in the trenches.” 

Lucy had no sympathy for this feeling, but she 
dimly understood it. 

Another desire had grown stronger than all else 
in her mind now; the wish to make sure of reach- 
ing Bob’s rendezvous. The great meadows behind 
the town were his only possible landing-place, but 
they were more than a mile away, and sentries were 
on guard all night in the town. 

“ Oh, Elizabeth, how shall we ever manage to get 
there to-night? ” she questioned, in a torment of 
anxiety. 

Elizabeth gave her a funny little smile — ^half- 
ashamed and yet resolute. “You have forgot, Miss 
Lucy, that I am a German. Almost where I like 
can I go, since the town is taken.” 


140 


CHAPTER VII 


BOB GORDON AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 

About nightfall of the same day Lucy left the 
hospital and crossed the street to return to her bed- 
room. Miss Pearse had urged her to go early to 
bed, though the truth was she did not feel so tired 
after a long afternoon spent in helping unpack 
supplies, as she had done on the days when she sat 
unoccupied, waiting for she knew not what. She 
picked her way among the broken paving-stones 
slowly, burdened with many thoughts. She had 
not told Miss Pearse a word about Bob’s coming, 
nor of her own and Elizabeth’s intention. It was 
not that she was unwilling to confide in her kind 
friend, but that she dreaded to face Miss Pearse’s 
doubts and fears, weighed down as she was with 
plenty of her own. It seemed much easier to go, 
as Elizabeth had planned, without causing anxiety 
or alarm to any one. For, however difficult the 
way and severe the trial to her courage, Lucy knew 
that the chance of seeing Bob, and of hearing news 
of himself and of their mother, was enough to over- 
come all her fears. 

141 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


She lay down, dressed as she was, on her bed and 
promptly fell asleep, for she had been up since five 
o’clock that morning. She set Miss Pearse’s alarm 
clock before lying down and put it beside her pillow 
in case she should sleep too long, but after an hour 
a prolonged burst of firing roused her. She sat up 
and looked at the clock, but it was too dark to see 
anything. She found some matches, and striking 
a light, discovered that it was nine o’clock, just time 
for the alarm. Miss Pearse did not come off duty 
till eleven. With fast beating heart Lucy threw 
around her shoulders a little cape which she often 
wore on summer evenings, for the night had grovm 
damp and chilly. Breathing a fervent prayer for 
the success of her expedition and for her brother’s 
safety, she left the room, and closing her door, that 
Miss Pearse might think her asleep when she came 
in, stole softly to the stairs and down into the 
street. 

It was a starlit night, and the figure of the sentry, 
patrolling the square in front of the hospital, showed 
clearly, his bayonet touched with a faint gleam as 
he shifted his gun on his shoulder. The handful 
of French townspeople were all indoors, none of 
them being allowed by the Germans on the streets 
after eight o’clock, unless on hospital duty. But 
an occasional soldier passed by, with clumping 
boots or clinking spurs, while Lucy stood hidden 
142 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


in the doorway. The lights of the hospital win- 
dows twinkled now and then, as a hurrying figure 
passed in front of them. A bat whizzed close by 
Lucy’s ear. She felt so lonely at that moment that 
she welcomed the sound of its blundering wings. 
It was a nice F rench bat, she thought, bent on some 
peaceful errand. But she had not much longer to 
wait. In a moment quick, light footsteps sounded 
near her, and Elizabeth’s little figure took shape 
out of the darkness. 

“ Here I am, Elizabeth! ” Lucy whispered. 

Elizabeth stepped inside the door, reaching out 
to touch Lucy’s arm, as she caught her breath after 
her rapid walk. 

“ Then right away we start,” she said, panting a 
little. “ So soon as we get there, the better.” 

“ Do you think we can do it? Shan’t we be 
stopped? ” asked Lucy fearfully. 

“ The most they can do is to send us back,” Eliza- 
beth answered. “ But I think we get by all right. 
INIy room in the house of my friend is close to the 
town’s edge. That far I go every night. And of 
the soldiers who are here on guard I many know. 
Last autumn was this regiment in Petit-Bois. 
Often have I seen that big sergeant now working at 
the hospital, when I help in my nephew’s shop.” 

While Elizabeth talked in a quick, nervous under- 
tone, she had drawn Lucy from the doorway and 
^43 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


the two were making their way along the gloomy 
street. Nothing more than an occasional lantern 
lighted the captured town when the lights of the 
few occupied houses were put out, and passers-by 
were left to find their way by the starlight, or 
by the occasional bursting of a star-shell in the 
heavens. 

“ Oh, I wish the guns would not start again! ” 
sighed Lucy, when a new burst of explosions had 
shaken the air. 

“ No, Miss Lucy, it is better so,” Elizabeth ob- 
jected. “ With the guns firing no one hears Mr. 
Bob’s machine.” 

“Of course!” Lucy exclaimed, suddenly wel- 
coming the vibrations of the cannon against her 
ears. “Why didn’t I think of that! Oh, Eliza- 
beth, I can’t bear to think of the risk he runs. I 
wish he were not coming.” 

“ Be sure he comes not unless a good chance he 
has,” Elizabeth reassured her. “ He said only ‘ I 
shall try.’ ” 

They had covered half a mile, through streets 
leading to the town’s outskirts by a more southerly 
direction than the way Lucy had taken the day be- 
fore. Now, at the corner of a street that remained 
quite undamaged, a sentry stood out from the 
shadow of the wall. Elizabeth gave a sharp glance 
at his tall, thin figure, and, as they drew nearer and 
144 



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BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


the man brought his gun to the challenge, she called 
out in German: 

“ Well, Hans Eberhardt, don’t you know me 
yet? You’re younger than I am, and should have 
better eyes.” 

The soldier lowered his piece and said with a 
laugh, ‘‘ It was your footsteps I was going to chal- 
lenge, Frau Muller. I couldn’t see you in this 
murk.” Then, as the two approached him, he 
added, “ But who’s that with you? ” 

“ Just a little girl who helps in the hospital. 
I’m going to take her home to sleep.” 

Lucy, trying to follow the rapid German speech, 
felt her heart pound at these words. But the sentry 
offered no objection, inquiring sleepily of Elizabeth 
as she paused close by him, “ Isn’t it eleven o’clock 
yet, Frau? I must have been on guard here al- 
most a week.” 

“ It is nearly ten — ^you’ll soon get off,” said 
Elizabeth encouragingly. “ What sort of quar- 
ters have you here? ” 

“ Pretty good. Better than those at Petit-Bois, 
though the French guns haven’t left us many whole 
roofs to sleep under. And, Donnerwetter ! We 
need a little sleep.” He gave a weary sigh as 
Elizabeth, starting on again at Lucy’s side, said 
with a friendly nod: 

“ Well, good-night to you, Hans.” 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ Good-night,” said the sentry, shouldering his 
gun once more. 

Lucy held fast to Elizabeth’s arm in an ecstasy of 
relief as they walked quickly on through the starlit 
darkness. 

“No others shall we meet inside the town,” Eliza- 
beth said softly. “ Once outside we must be care- 
ful, and on the lookout keep.” 

They were already near the border of Chateau- 
Plessis, but not among the lanes^with which Lucy 
was familiar. They had come further south, mak- 
ing an abrupt turn, after passing the sentry, away 
from the real route to Elizabeth’s lodgings. She 
wished to give the German headquarters on this 
side of the town a wide berth, as well as the field 
observation post in the meadow. Bob’s probable 
landing-place she and Lucy had discussed that 
morning, for Lucy had faith in Elizabeth’s shrewd 
judgment, sharpened by months of experience on 
or near the battle line. 

“ Mr. Bob dares not to land now where three 
days ago you saw him. Miss Lucy,” Elizabeth said 
with certainty. “ Nor yet near the place where he 
let fall to me the message. But there is a further 
meadow where sometimes aviators have the land- 
ing made, and that is on the other side of the old 
Frenchwoman’s house, and nearer to the wood. It 
is there I look for him to come.” 

146 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


Now, as they passed the scattered houses between 
them and the open fields, Lucy guessed that they 
would come out about a quarter of a mile south of 
Mere Breton’s cottage. Already she saw the 
safety of the way Elizabeth had chosen, for this 
corner of Chateau-Plessis was the farthest removed 
from the German front and the least frequented. 
The fields it bordered on were too near the wood 
where the F rench batteries had been hidden to have 
been tilled or cultivated. They lay neglected, torn 
up by shell holes and overgrown with weeds. 

The stars gave light enough to show the outline 
of Mere Breton’s cottage among the trees at their 
left as they emerged at last from a poplar-bordered 
lane into the grass of the nearest meadow. Lucy 
stumbled a little as her feet met the rough clods of 
earth, and Elizabeth, breathing fast after her 
anxious walk, said softly in her ear, “ We can sit 
down and rest a while. Miss Lucy. Too early is 
it yet for him to come.” 

“ Where shall we go? ” asked Lucy uncertainly. 
‘‘ Near to the cottage, I think. Then we shall be 
safely hidden and can see around us.” 

Elizabeth nodded, cautiously choosing her steps 
in the darkness, fearful of the treacherous shell 
holes here and there. At Mere Breton’s back gate 
they paused, and Lucy held her breath, listening 
with a shiver of fear for she knew not what. But 

147 


. CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


only the pounding of the cannon as the bombard- 
ment fitfully continued broke the silence, while far 
to the west on the battle line beyond the town, burst- 
ing shells threw a glaring light against the sky. 

Through the soft darkness near at hand a cricket 
by the gate-post made a brave eif ort to chirp against 
the guns. Lucy and Elizabeth sat down on the 
worn stone steps outside the gate and peered across 
the fields and up at the sky in anxious expectancy. 

“ He may not come, Elizabeth. I almost hope 
he doesn’t! ” Lucy said again, the old dreadful fear 
for Bob clutching at her heart. Inside the gate 
and drooping above it grew a big lilac bush, and as 
they sat there, the night air shook the blossoms and 
floated over them laden with fragrance. Lucy 
leaned back against the post and drank in the sweet 
air in deep refreshing breaths. Never again, she 
thought, would she smell lilacs without remember- 
ing this night. 

After a long time of waiting she felt certain it 
must be late enough for Bob to come. Out of 
many thoughts an idea had occurred to her, as she 
sat gazing up into the sky. The most dangerous 
part of the descent would be when Bob drew near 
enough to be seen against the stars. Once in the 
black shadow of the wood he could land unseen, and 
Bob knew these meadows well and would make use 
of such protection. This meant that he would land 
148 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


at some distance from where they were, and she 
wanted to be as near as possible, to save every 
precious minute. She waited a moment for a good 
pause in the firing to tell her thoughts more easily 
to Elizabeth, but before it came a sound made her 
suddenly clutch at her companion’s arm. In the 
distance, between the scattering shots, she heard the 
whir of an airplane. Silently Elizabeth nodded, 
pointing upward toward the sky above the wood. 
A little dark speck showed for an instant against 
the clear, starry blue, then before Lucy’s eager 
eyes had more than caught it, sank swiftly down 
among the shadowy tree tops. 

Lucy sprang to her feet, not speaking a word, all 
her energy and breath reserved for that mad dash 
across the fields to Bob’s landing-place. But Eliza- 
beth’s hand caught hers and her voice entreated; 

“ Don’t run in the dark across there. Miss Lucy! 
Surely you will in the holes fall. Mr. Bob will 
come this way himself to look for us.” 

Only a little deterred by this warning, Lucy be- 
gan running toward the wood, searching every yard 
of ground ahead of her and narrowly avoiding more 
than once a bad fall into a yawning shell hole close 
at hand. Elizabeth was soon lost sight of but she 
could not stop to wait. Before long her breath 
began to come hard and fast, and her back to ache 
unbearably from leaning forward as she ran to 
149 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


watch for dangerous ground. On she went until 
presently a wide field lay between her and Mere 
Breton’s cottage. A hummock in the grass at one 
side made her dodge a little to the left, uncertainly. 
It looked like an animal asleep, but as she came 
closer it moved and up beside her sprang a tall 
figure. Two strong arms were around her trem- 
bling shoulders, while a familiar voice said quickly 
in her ear, “ It’s Bob, Lucy dear — I’m not a 
Boche! That’s what I took you for! ” 

“Oh, Bob — if I had been!” Lucy gasped as 
she caught tight hold of him and glanced shiver- 
ing into the darkness. 

“ Don’t worry — he wouldn’t have got me. I 
shan’t fall tamely into their hands a second time.” 
Suddenly his fingers on Lucy’s arm stiffened. 
“ Who’s that? ” 

“ It’s Elizabeth. I ran ahead of her. Where 
shall we go. Bob? Won’t you be safer close by 
your machine? ” 

“ We’re near enough. I can see all around me 
here. Elizabeth can tell me where the guards are 
posted. I bet she knows them all. Oh, Lucy,” 
and here Bob’s momentary cheerfulness collapsed 
with a dismal groan, “ I never thought this could 
happen — that you should be left here! They beat 
us back with six full divisions. Jerusalem! — ^how 
many men they must have lost, for we gave them a 
150 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


good fight, though we were outnumbered three to 
one.” 

“ Don’t mind, Bob — we can’t help it, and I’m all 
right. Before long we’ll surely get the town 
again.” 

“ That’s what we hope for. Is Father doing 
well? He must have been nearly wild when he 
knew you couldn’t get away.” 

“Yes, but you know how calm he is when things 
are really wrong. He’s better, in spite of every- 
thing.” 

“ I’m thankful for that. Here’s Elizabeth.” 
Bob took a few steps forward and caught hold of 
the little German woman’s arm, as she came pant- 
ing up to them. “ You’re a brick, Elizabeth,” he 
said with eager earnestness. “ I was so afraid you 
wouldn’t get the message or understand it — ^but I 
might have known you would. I’ve hung over 
these meadows looking for you again and again 
since the town was taken.” 

“ Oh, yes, Mr. Bob, I understand the message all 
right,” nodded Elizabeth, breathing fast. “ It was 
just like you showed me. And you are well — you 
don’t get hurt? ” she asked, the same affectionate 
anxiety in her voice as when she watched over 
Lucy’s welfare. 

“ I’m as fine as a fiddle. Look here, Elizabeth, 
where’s the nearest outpost? ” 

151 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ More than half a mile from here, Mr. Bob. 
Pretty safe you are here, and I a good watch will 
keep while you say all you want to the little sister.” 

‘‘ Bob, I’m so frightened for you,” said Lucy, 
trembling afresh when any pause in the firing made 
the little night noises audible around them. “ \¥hy 
did you come? ” 

“ Because I had to see you and know that you 
were safe. Father, too. You can imagine how 
Mother and Cousin Henry have felt since Chateau- 
Plessis was taken.” 

“ Oh, Bob, you’ve seen Mother? Where is she?” 
Lucy cried, in a burst of relief and longing. 

“ She is near our line, about fifteen miles south- 
west of here. That’s where the trains were 
blocked — except those carrying troops — so that she 
couldn’t get on. She tried every possible way — 
horse, mule and ambulance — and she would have 
made it on foot if the town had held out another 
day. Come, let’s sit down on this bank. And stop 
shaking like that ! I’m all right.” 

They dropped do^vn beneath a ragged row of 
poplars which separated the field from its neighbor 
as Bob continued: 

“ I was so thankful to have the good news of 
Father’s recovery for her at the same time that she 
heard of the town’s capture. Now I can at least 
tell her something of you. You’re in the hospital, 
152 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


Lucy? Do the Germans let us run it as before? 
I know something of what goes on in Chateau- 
Plessis — can’t stop now to tell you how — ^but I 
know that the town is held by only a company, and 
that the enemy is too fagged out to do more than 
care for their own wounded.” 

“ Make us care for them, you mean,” said Lucy. 
“ But where can you get news from? Never mind 
now, tell me more of Mother. Oh, how often I’ve 
thought of her, and longed to tell her I was safe! ” 
“ It’s Elizabeth being here with you that has com- 
forted her most. Did you find Elizabeth that day 
I told you she might still be here? ” 

“ The day you landed over there on the meadow? 
You never told me,” said Lucy, puzzled. Suddenly 
a light broke through her mind. “ Was that what 
you tried to tell me as you started off? I couldn’t 
hear a word with the propeller whirling.” 

Bob put his arm suddenly about her in the dark- 
ness and looked up into the starry sky. “ If only 
I could take you back with me,” he groaned. “ It 
seems too awful to leave you here ! But I have to 
cross the German lines, and their guns and scouts 
are fiendishly watchful. My little one-man Nieu- 
port can skim over their heads and dodge them. 
With a two-seater I need a fellow in front of me 
pumping a machine gun for all he’s worth.” He 
fell silent for a despairing moment, then said more 

153 


.CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


calmly, “Never mind, Lucy. Just be a plucky 
sport. I won’t leave you here long, if I have to 
bring a squadron after you. If only we could 
force them out of Argenton! That’s the place 
where they threaten to outflank us if we advance.” 

At the name Argenton Lucy all at once forgot 
the sickening fear and ache of her own heart in a 
vivid recollection. That was the place where Cap- 
tain Beattie had been taken. “ What makes it so 
hard to get through there. Bob? ” she asked eagerly. 
“ You mean the enemy is too strong? ” 

“ Not that — they don’t need a large force. 
There’s a long fortified ridge in front of the town 
that keeps us from approaching. It’s a piece of 
rolling ground about three miles long. Their 
trenches run through it, and they have a collection 
of anti-aircraft guns and battle-planes. We hang 
over the place day in and out, but we can’t fly low 
enough to get sight of their batteries.” 

“ Would any one who had been in their trenches 
know what you want to learn? ” asked Lucy, peer- 
ing into her brother’s face through the dark- 
ness. 

“ Of course — if he wasn’t blind. But people 
who have reached their trenches from our side 
haven’t come back to tell us. Look here, Lucy, 
what I want more than anything to know is this: 
Do you get enough to eat? If you don’t, I can 

154 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


manage to bring over supplies on nights when 
things look quiet, and leave them in the wood.” 

“ Oh, no, Bob; please! ” Lucy entreated. “ The 
hospital has a garden and the place is so packed 
with German wounded that we get all there is to 
be had. I know the danger you run to come here, 
and I don’t want you to try it again, much as I long 
to see you.” As Bob sat in troubled, helpless 
silence for the moment, she added quickly, “ But 
if I should learn anything that might help the Allies 
to retake the town, how could I get news to you? ” 
“ What could you learn, you foolish kid? There’s 
nothing about this town we don’t know. And for 
heaven’s sake don’t put your finger into such a 
risky business. Keep out of anything like spying, 
and be satisfied to help where it is safe. Elizabeth 
might not get you out of trouble as she did me.” 

“ Do you know of a place called the Old Prison 
somewhere in Chateau-Plessis? ” asked Lucy ir- 
relevantly. 

“ Yes; it’s about a mile from here. It’s nothing 
but an old jail the French used as a sort of town 
office, keeping one or two cells for an occasional 
prisoner. We let out some French soldiers the 
Germans had stuck there, when we took the town. 
Why, have they any one in there now? ” 

“ Yes, I heard of some one being put there,” 
said Lucy briefly. “ I think I remember the place 

155 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


now. Bob,” she added anxiously, “ don’t you think 
you’d better go? It seems as though the firing 
were much heavier. I’ll be so horribly worried 
about your getting back.” 

“ Please don’t be. I’ll keep way over their heads 
and play safe. How I wish I could leave you and 
Father some good news; but I can’t, except to 
promise you that Chateau-Plessis won’t stay in 
German hands one second after we can take it.” 

Lucy choked down a sob and, thankful that the 
darlmess hid her eyes brimming with tears of lonely 
wretchedness, threw her arms about Bob’s neck in 
a desperate embrace. 

“ Give Mother my dearest love,” she said huskily 
in his ear. “ Tell her I’m safe, and please go now. 
Good-bye ! ” 

“ Good-bye, Elizabeth,” said Bob, having a hard 
time with his own unsteady voice. “ Take care of 
her, won’t you? And whenever you cross that field 
keep a lookout for me.” 

“Yes, Mr. Bob,” assented Elizabeth, patting the 
tall young aviator on the shoulder with a loving 
hand. “ Tell your mother she should not too much 
worry over Miss Lucy. I do my best for her.” 

“ I know you will,” said Bob, with some relief in 
his heavy anxiety. “ Good-bye, Captain.” 

Another moment and he was swallowed up in the 
shadows, while Lucy and Elizabeth stood gazing 
156 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


after him with straining eyes, their ears on the alert 
for every sound, though nothing could be heard 
around them just then in the noise of the cannon. 

Still silent and motionless they stood there after 
Bob had gone with eyes lifted now to the sky above 
the wood. Within a quarter of an hour the little 
Nieuport rose like a winged speck over the tree 
tops. Lucy clutched Elizabeth’s arm, her heart 
pounding intolerably. “ There he is ! There he 
is ! ” she whispered, her mind hovering between re- 
lief that Bob had got safely away from German 
territory and dread of what he had still to face. 
Another second and the little monoplane had dis- 
appeared in the blue, and Elizabeth was tugging at 
Lucy’s arm and saying earnestly in her ear: 

‘‘ Come, Miss Lucy ! We should go back quickly 
now ! ” 

Lucy turned away from the wide starry spaces 
on which her eyes were still fixed, and, obedient to 
Elizabeth’s urging, began to retrace her steps across 
the fields behind her old nurse’s cautious feet. She 
walked mechanically, her eyes on possible shell 
holes, but her mind far distant. Lucy’s moments 
of fear and weakness had one redeeming feature. 
They were usually followed by a great scorn of her- 
self in which her courage and endurance rose to a 
high pitch. So it was with her now, after the 
despairing terror which had made her hold fast to 

157 


CAPTAIN LUCY IN FRANCE 


Bob, and forget half she had to say to him at the 
moment of parting. At sight of him flying back 
through the night to make his perilous way among 
the swarming German planes above the trenches, 
all her courage returned to her. She could do 
nothing toward Bob's safety, but while he was in 
danger she would do the one thing in her power 
which might be of some distant help to the Allies. 

“ Elizabeth,” she said, as together they made a 
difficult way through a tangle of bushes near Mere 
Breton’s cottage, “ I’m going back by way of the 
Old Prison.” 

“ But why. Miss Lucy? For what? ” Elizabeth 
demanded in amazement, stopping short to catch 
her breath. 

As quickly as she could, Lucy told her of the en- 
counter of two days ago with the young English- 
man, and of her hopes that he might have some of 
the information Bob so sorely needed. Elizabeth 
listened with no answering enthusiasm for the risky 
project, but the vigorous objections which she 
launched when Lucy paused in her rapid explana- 
tion fell on deaf ears. 

“ You needn’t come with me. I can find the 
place, and there are so few sentries I know I can 
keep out of their way,” was the only answer vouch- 
safed her. In her impulsive resolution Lucy for- 
got Elizabeth’s larger share in the dangers of the 
158 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


expedition. She had only one thought just then; 
to succeed in her undertaking. And this required 
such a desperate keying up of her own courage as to 
make her thoughtless for her kind and unselfish 
companion. 

“ Oh, Miss Lucy, I beg you not to go! ’’ implored 
Elizabeth in a last attempt to dissuade the deter- 
mined girl from her purpose. 

To this Lucy returned doggedly, “ It’s all I can 
do for Bob, and I must do it.” 

Elizabeth sighed despondently, but her faithful 
affection answered without hesitation on her own 
account, “ Very well; if you must, I go with you.” 

“ Oh, thank you, dear Elizabeth! I knew you’d 
help me,” cried Lucy with genuine relief and grati- 
tude. “ Now come into Mere Breton’s garden till 
I show you what I’m going to do.” 

Along with Lucy’s mad eagerness to learn from 
Captain Beattie’s lips what he knew of the defenses 
of Argenton — information which Bob himself had 
told her might free Chateau-Plessis from German 
hands — was another and more womanly motive for 
her visit to the prison. The sight of her brother 
had reminded her of the young prisoner who had so 
aroused her admiration and pity. She could not 
help Bob to safety, but could she not do something 
for this other boy, now that chance had brought her 
within possible reach of him? She thought to her- 

159 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


self how she would despise an English girl who 
could have seen Bob taken off to prison, as she had 
seen Captain Beattie, without lifting a finger to 
ease his unhappy fate. Somewhere this young 
officer’s family was waiting anxiously for news of 
him, and hoping that one kind hand might be 
stretched out to offer him help and comfort. 
While she thought this Lucy had entered Mere 
Breton’s garden and, feeling for Elizabeth in the 
shadowy darkness, said softly, “ Gather some of 
whatever you can find. I know where the eggs are 
put after they are collected in the evening. I’m 
going for some.” 

The little hen-house was not far off, where the 
basket of eggs was nightly placed inside the door. 
Lucy felt for the key upon the roof, unlocked the 
door and putting in her hand, took out half a dozen 
eggs and tied them in her handkerchief. She felt 
no compunction about making off with the old 
Frenchwoman’s property. She and Mere Breton 
had talked together in confidence and Lucy knew 
that this food was far better destined in her eyes 
than if it had gone down the throats of the German 
wounded. She hurried back across the garden and 
found Elizabeth collecting a small supply of the 
only ripe vegetables to be had just then. 

“ Got them? ” she asked, breathing hard with un- 
controllable excitement. “ All right, come on.” 
i6o 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


They stole out of the gate into the meadow, and 
now Elizabeth, trying to resign herself to the at- 
tempt since she could not prevent it, asked anx- 
iously : 

“ What shall we do there. Miss Lucy? Better we 
think of that now, while there is time.” 

“ Well, first, how far from here is the prison? ” 
Lucy hoped it was no farther than Bob had said. 
She knew her courage would not last forever. 

“ Only a little way after we reach the town. I 
know the shortest way. But always a guard there 
is, when in daylight I have passed the place. No 
good it will do there that I am German, Miss Lucy, 
for I have not any excuse to make him for us.” 

Lucy thought for a minute. “ I don’t believe 
there are many gTiards, do you, Elizabeth? ” 

“ No, only one, I think.” 

“ Because Bob said there were cells on just one 
side. If I can only get to his window and talk with 
him for five minutes it will be enough. It doesn’t 
seem as though they would watch the prisoners all 
the time.” 

“ No, more likely they very little watch; but, oh. 
Miss Lucy, I am not sure how it will be, and I wish 
you do not go ! ” 

“ I must try, Elizabeth. Be nice and just think 
how to help the most instead of worrying. I loiow 
we will be all right.” 

i6i 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ Very well. I help you all I ean/’ agreed 
Elizabeth with quiet resignation. She spoke not 
another word of protest as, entering the silent, 
abandoned streets, they stole cautiously along the 
town’s outskirts, toward the south. 

After a few moments’ walk, Elizabeth pointed to 
an open square ahead, at one corner of which a low 
building gloomed against the sky. A church, with 
the steeple shot away, rose opposite it. “ There is 
the prison,” Elizabeth said in Lucy’s ear. “ The 
cells are on the other side.” Now that they were 
near to danger Elizabeth seemed once more to take 
command of things. Miss Lucy, you must here 
in the shadow stay,” she continued quickly, “ while 
I go to see who is on guard. Better I some excuse 
can make alone, if he should see me.” 

Without waiting for an answer she was gone, and 
Lucy shrank close against the brick wall of the 
house behind her, and stood there with suddenly 
quaking heart, and ears listening vainly for any 
other sound than the occasional bursts of shell fire. 
In five minutes Elizabeth was back again, and the 
moment she spoke Lucy felt the joyful relief in her 
voice. 

“ Oh, Miss Lucy,” she said, softly, “ the best of 
luck we have! The guard inside the house sits — 
where was the office. They are a couple of sleepy 
fellows, leaning on their guns. I watch the door 
162 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


while you in back to the barred windows go. So 
soon as the guard should move I come to warn you. 
So in the dark we safely get away.” 

“Elizabeth, you’re a brick!” Lucy whispered, 
squeezing her companion’s hand in eager gratitude, 
as she followed her toward the dark wall of the old 
building. 

A square of light showed on the side toward the 
church, and here Elizabeth took up her watch from 
the shadow of the corner, leaving Lucy, carrying 
the little spoils of Mere Breton’s garden in her 
cloak, to make her way to the right, or prison end 
of the building. With a hard clutch at her already 
waning courage, Lucy felt with her free hand for 
the angle of the corner on the rough stone wall, and 
stepping cautiously aroimd it, reached the side of 
the prison which opened on a narrow courtyard. 

She stared up at the wall, seeing no break at first 
in its dim outline, but, as she looked, three windows 
detached themselves faintly from the sha<iows. In 
another moment she could see that each was criss- 
crossed with bars. Only one course of action sug- 
gested itself to her excited mind, and whatever its 
drawbacks she dared not delay. She went close 
up to the first window and, dropping her cape, stood 
on tiptoe and put her face against the bars. She 
could see nothing inside the room but, making a 
trumpet of her hands, she said, “ Captain Beattie! ” 
163 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


She dared not call out, for as luck would have it, 
in the last five minutes there had come a decided 
pause in the firing, and a loud voice might very well 
carry between the shots. The occupant of the cell 
made no response, only Lucy fancied that she heard 
some one sigh, and the rustle of a straw mattress 
beneath a sleeper’s weight. With pounding heart 
she stood a minute longer listening, then stepping 
back, crept on to the next window. She reached 
up on tiptoe to grasp the bars, and as she did so 
her fingers touched something soft inside — some- 
body’s clothing. At the same moment a voice, 
speaking within a few inches of her face, asked 
breathlessly in English, “ Who’s that? ” 

Lucy’s heart gave a wild throb of triumph. 
“ Captain Beattie? ” she stammered, clutching at 
the bars. 

“Yes — who on earth ?” The voice was 

shaky with bewilderment. Lucy Imew she had not 
a second to lose. She said hastily: 

“ You remember the girl who translated the 
German questions for you, the day the town was 
taken? I’m an American; my father is an officer — 
wounded — and I came to see him from England 
and couldn’t get away in time.” 

“ But what are you doing here now? ” asked the 
amazed young Englishman. As he spoke, his hand 
reached through the bars for Lucy’s, as though to 
164 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


establish the comradeship of touch out of the dark- 
ness. 

“ I came to see you because I knew you’d be 
lonely — I had a brother in a German prison — and 
for another reason too. But first,” she reached 
down for her cape and gathered up the meager 
supplies it held, “ do you get enough to eat? ” 

“ I should say not. But quite as much as I ex- 
pected. How about yourself? ” 

“ Oh, I’m all right. I’m in the hospital and 
there is always enough there. Loolv here, I’ve 
brought you a few things. I know raw eggs are 
horrid, but they’re nourishing. It’s all I could 
manage to-night. Do you want them? ” 

“ Do I want them ! ” The rest of the prisoner’s 
answer was to reach through the bars and take the 
scanty provisions carefully from Lucy’s hands. 
“ You plucky little kid! I’m as hungry as a wolf. 
Don’t tell me you came here all alone to-night? ” 

“ Oh, no. A — a friend from the hospital came 
with me. But, Captain Beattie, please listen now 
while I tell you something.” She paused for a 
second and a sudden thought prompted her to pref- 
ace her words by asking, “Are you quite sure I’m 
all right and that you trust me? You can put out 
your hand and feel my hair and face if you like, so 
you’ll see I’m really who I said.” 

“ I believe you! ” said the Englishman, and his 
165 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


voice sounded as though he were smiling. “ What’s 
jmur name? You haven’t told me.” 

“ Lucy Gordon. My brother is Lieutenant 
Robert Gordon of the American Aviation Corps.” 

“ No! Is he? I’ve seen him fly.” From inside 
the barred window Lucy heard a deep sigh as 
though the young prisoner had suddenly realized 
again his hopeless captivity. 

She went on quickly. “ He came here to see me 
to-night.” 

“What? Here?” 

“ Yes. He got word to me that he was going to 
try to land behind the town, and I came out to meet 
him.” She plunged into the story of Bob’s com- 
ing, repeating all he had told her of the difficulties 
in the way of the Allied advance, and her own new- 
found hope, at mention of Argenton, that the young 
Englishman might have some of the information 
so vital for the recovery of Chateau-Plessis and the 
adjoining ground. 

“ Oh, if I could only have seen him for one 
moment! What a chance in a thousand!” her 
listener broke in with desperate eagerness. 

“ Then you do know about Argenton? You 
could have told him? ” Lucy panted. 

“ Didn’t I walk all through their trenches and 
wait for hours in the broiling sun above their 
beastly batteries? But I had no hope of getting 

i66 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


news of it to our lines. If I could have seen Gor- 
don for five minutes! ” 

“ I never thought of it in time. I always do 
things too late,” moaned Lucy, almost in despair. 
“ Couldn’t you tell me anyhow. Captain Beattie? 
So that if he does come again — ^he’s going to try 
to — I won’t fail a second time? ” Her voice shook 
with the sobs that rose uncontrollably in her throat. 
To have been so near success and to have missed 
it! A weight of disappointment settled on her 
heart. 

“ I couldn’t explain the defenses to you now,” 
said Captain Beattie doubtfully. “ You wouldn’t 
remember them accurately enough to do any good. 
Anyhow, it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to make the 
trip again.” 

“ Never mind — he might.” 

“ Well, I have paper and pencil, and I’ll draw 
a sketch — a camouflaged one. You could tell him, 
of course, what it is. But I don’t think you ought 
to come here a second time.” 

“ I’m coming. I’ll bring you things to eat. 
Didn’t I tell you Bob had been in a German prison? 
Anyway, I’ve made such a mess of this I’m going 
to try to succeed in the end.” 

“ Don’t feel bad,” said the young officer, conceal- 
ing his disappointment. “ It would have been a 
horrible risk to bring your brother here — though so 
167 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


far as I can see the town is empty and deserted as 
a tomb. I wish you’d go now yourself, though. 
I’m awfully anxious about you. Where is your 
friend? ” 

“ She’s watching to see that your guard doesn’t 
come out. All right, I’m going; but you’ll see me 
soon again.” 

“ Good-night — God bless you.” The young 
captain reached quickly through the bars and took 
Lucy’s hands in a warm clasp. “ You don’t know 
what it’s meant to talk English again — and with a 
friend.” 

Lucy sprang do\^m from her foothold in the wall, 
and, with one swift glance about her through the 
darlmess, picked up her cape and stole around the 
corner of the building. Elizabeth was still stand- 
ing by the shadow of the wall, but as Lucy came up 
she reached out and caught her arm, leading the way 
swiftly doATO the narrow street. 

“ Oh, Miss Lucy,” she exclaimed, “ I thought 
you never come! I have prayed for you every 
moment you were gone! The soldiers stay there, 
but I feel so afraid they change the guard, and I 
have no time to get to you! ” 

“ I’m sorry. I know I stayed too long — but I 
found him!” Now that her disappointment was 
not so sharp, Lucy was glad that at least she had 
accomplished half her mission. “ I’ll tell you all 

i68 


BOB AND CAPTAIN BEATTIE 


about it, Elizabeth. Where are we going — to the 
hospital? ” 

“ No, indeed. Miss Lucy. I take you to my 
room, and there we can sleep a little while. By four 
o’clock we will back to the hospital go. So you will 
get there as soon as the others.” 

“All right,” said Lucy faintly. “ I don’t know 
whether I’m sleepy or not, but I think we started 
out to find Bob about a week ago.” 


169 


CHAPTER VIII 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 

Lucy, will you do something for me? ” asked 
Miss Pearse, as they mounted the hospital steps 
early in the morning, two days later. “ Miss Willis 
and Brelet are going to the German supply depot 
after some things we need. I wish you would go 
with them and see if you can’t bring back more soap 
and matches. We want them terribly, and we 
always have to wait for them at a separate door 
from the food depot. It’s impossible to spare any 
one else from here,” she added, turning toward 
Lucy a decidedly reproachful look, “ or I’d keep 
you working in the hospital. Goodness Imows 
what you’ll do, once I let you out.” 

Lucy, not having any defense ready, said noth- 
ing. But she did not look particularly repentant. 
Miss Pearse had come face to face with her outside 
the hospital when she returned the morning after 
Bob’s visit. Astonished at catching sight of her 
charge, whom she thought still in bed and asleep, 
she had insisted on a complete explanation. Lucy 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 


had received a scolding, but underneath all of her 
severity. Miss Pearse could not hide the sympathetic 
heart that beat in warm response to Lucy’s hope 
and anxiety. Her lecture had weakly broken down 
into a fire of questions about Bob’s daring flight, 
which left Lucy feeling less remorseful than Miss 
Pearse intended. 

Now, after waiting a moment while their passes 
were inspected by a deliberate German sentry, she 
followed the nurse into the hospital, saying, “ Of 
course I’ll go. Miss Pearse. Right after break- 
fast? Just let me tell Father good-morning 
first.” 

Colonel Gordon was sitting up in bed, for his con- 
valescence had now really begun, and his thin face, 
from which the tan had almost faded, was tinged 
with the first suggestion of returning health. His 
eyes, though, held a sombre look in their gray 
depths, and at sight of Lucy it did not leave them, 
even when he smiled cheerfully and held out a wel- 
coming hand. 

Lucy had told her father everything about Bob’s 
visit and the news that he had brought, and in the 
thrilling story Colonel Gordon’s fear for his son’s 
safety had been almost outweighed by admiration 
of his pluck and skill. His face had lighted up as 
he listened, and Lucy had repeated the details of 
Bob’s message and landing twice over. It meant 
171 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


much to the wounded officer to feel that, if he him- 
self must remain a helpless prisoner of war, his son 
at least was doing a brave part alone. 

Lucy had not told him a word about her visit to 
Captain Beattie’s prison. She had not accom- 
plished what she hoped, and she dreaded lest her 
father’s fears for her safety might lead him to make 
her promise not to go there again. Just now she 
felt she could not give up the one chance that might 
mean so much. And had she not given a promise, 
too, that she would do what she could to make the 
young Englishman’s lot more bearable? 

This morning she told her father of her intended 
trip across the town for the supplies doled out by 
the German conquerors. Colonel Gordon lay 
watching his daughter with anxious eyes as she sat 
beside him, thankful to see that her cheeks had not 
yet lost their color, in spite of all she had endured, 
nor her hazel eyes their brightness. 

‘‘ I’m all right, Father, so long as I have work 
to do,” said Lucy, reading his troubled thoughts. 
“ It was sitting idle and worrying that I couldn’t 
stand. Now that you are getting well, and we 
know the worst about the town, I can grin and 
bear it.” 

“A weight is off my mind since I know Bob has 
told your mother we are safe,” said Colonel Gor- 
don. “As for grinning and bearing it, our troops 
172 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 


won’t be satisfied to do that, thank heaven. 
They’ll push through again somehow — they must! 
I don’t know what I’d do if I thought I was a 
prisoner for the rest of the war.” 

Lucy was silent, but again she resolved to tell 
her father nothing of the secret Captain Beattie 
held, until she had revisited the prison and accom- 
plished at least a part of what she sought. 

“ I must go to breakfast now, Father,” she said, 
after a moment. “ I’ll come in to see you again 
just as soon as I get back from my morning’s work.” 

Lucy needed no urging to do all in her power to 
help inside the hospital. To her natural eagerness 
to be of service to the Allies’ cause was added a 
keen desire to show the Germans in command that 
she was useful. She had a secret dread that they 
might think her in the way and forbid her to re- 
main where she longed to stay, close by her father’s 
side. 

The streets were glowing in hot sunshine when 
she started out with Miss Willis and Brelet, an 
hour later. Since the night before, the guns had 
been almost silent, and every soul among the Allies 
in the town wondered how things were going on 
the battle-front, but steadfastly refused to ask their 
conquerors, certain they would hear of nothing else 
than a German victory. But even the Germans 
could not claim much of an advance, for the firing 

173 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


of the past night showed their line to be still held at 
about four miles west of Chateau-Plessis. 

The German food supply depot was about a mile 
north from the American hospital. It was incon- 
veniently placed for both hospitals and for the few 
hundred inhabitants remaining in the town, but 
naturally the Germans gave no thought to this. 
Every one wishing to buy or beg food was obliged 
to go in person, showing the registry card which 
had been furnished each inhabitant soon after the 
town’s capture. This systematic arrangement 
promised well, but in reality many a tired and over- 
worked French citizen had a long, hot walk to the 
supply depot for nothing. The food was scanty, 
and only the worst portions of it were reserved for 
the tovmspeople. In addition to this, the long wait 
necessary to secure anything kept those away who 
had a few vegetables left growing in their little 
gardens. 

The old men and boys of Chateau-Plessis had 
been put to work clearing the streets of broken 
stone and rubbish, for there was no more than a 
company of soldiers in the tovoi, and these con- 
tented themselves with mounting guard and exercis- 
ing a general supervision. But the civilian workers 
received no more food than if they had been idle, 
and, hungry and dejected, worked grudgingly at 
their task, fearful lest they should be in some way 

174 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 

aiding the German advance. Lucy watched these 
unwilling workers, as the three passed close to a 
little group of them, on their way across the town. 
Somehow they seemed even more pitiful to her than 
soldier prisoners. The soldier has at least had a 
chance to strike his enemy, and he is at a time of 
life when blows are given and endured. But these 
old men, weather-worn and bent with labor, had 
earned a quiet home in the little town where most 
of them were born. The boys, from twelve to about 
sixteen years old, glanced up with shamefaced and 
defiant looks. They had had no chance at self- 
defense, and Lucy guessed with a quick throb of 
sympathy how their young, loyal hearts must suffer 
in obeying the conqueror’s commands. 

Suppose it were America, and the Germans 
were ordering us to work for them,” she thought, 
and her cheeks flushed with anger at the triumphant 
foe who caused such misery. Then she shook her 
head impatiently at herself, as the house used for 
the food depot came into sight. “ I’ll have to feel 
a little more polite than this, if I’m to get any soap 
and matches out of them,” she decided. 

“ There’s not much of a crowd to-day, thank 
goodness,” remarked Miss Willis, looking at the 
scattered handful of people standing about the 
building. “ But I suppose there are enough more 
indoors to keep us waiting half the morning.” 

175 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ Well, I’ll go to the other side and try my luck,” 
said Lucy, making for the left-hand door and tak- 
ing her place in line, with the written request from 
the hospital in her hand. Presently her turn came 
to step inside the door and hand her paper to the 
sergeant at the desk. He read it, pursing his lips 
doubtfully, glanced at a written list beside him, 
and finally told Lucj^ to come back in half an hour. 
He shouted it, under the odd impression that people 
who could not understand German would get his 
meaning somehow if he spoke loud enough. Lucy 
nodded, wanting to laugh at his hot, bothered-look- 
ing face, and went out in search of Miss Willis and 
Brelet. 

The people of the hospital, owing in great part to 
the German wounded sheltered there, were in a 
much easier position than the rest of the population 
in regard to food. The German authorities al- 
lowed them hand-carts to convey the somewhat 
variable supplies allotted to them. To-day the 
chief part of the food had already been sent over, 
but some necessary things were missing, and these 
Miss Willis had volunteered to bring back. The 
chances looked uncertain, however. The German 
non-com in charge as a matter of coui’se appeared 
doubtful about granting her request. Perhaps — 

after a while When Lucy entered the room 

things had advanced no further than this. Seeing 
176 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 


every prospect of a long wait she glanced about her 
to see who else was in the same plight. Twenty- 
five or thirty people were standing wearily wait- 
ing on the sergeant’s pleasure. Some of them 
had sat down on the floor and leaned against the 
wall. 

Among these last was a slight delicate-looking 
woman whom Lucy noticed because she seemed so 
sadly out of place seated on the dusty floor in the 
midst of the noisy and perspiring crowd. She was 
plainly dressed in black with a widow’s cap over her 
soft, dark hair, but something about her face and 
bearing set her apart from the peasants and towns- 
people around her. Beside her stood an old woman 
who was evidently a servant, with an empty basket 
on her arm and an angry scowl on her forehead as 
she watched the German soldiers leisurely dealing 
out supplies to the waiting crowd. But it was the 
third member of the little group to whom Lucy’s 
attention quickly shifted. This was a girl about 
her own age, who stood leaning against the wall by 
her mother’s side, a kind of scornful patience on her 
face. Her blue eyes, which looked as though not 
long ago they had been full of childish gaiety, now 
held a defiant resolution in their depths. Her hair 
was so black it reminded Lucy of Julia Houston’s, 
except that Julia’s hair was straight, and this girl’s 
fell in soft waves over her thin shoulders. 

177 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Lucy could not take her eyes away from that 
pretty, sensitive faee, so pathetic in its look of hav- 
ing been roughly wakened from the happy child- 
hood that French girls know until well into their 
teens. In another moment the object of her gaze 
looked around and caught sight of her. Lucy did 
not hesitate. She had longed for the companion- 
ship of a girl her own age since she had found time 
to think in these last few days, and she had seen 
this girl once before in crossing the town with 
Brelet and Elizabeth, and had heard from Brelet 
something of her history. She made a difficult way 
across the crowded room to her side and, overcom- 
ing a sudden shyness as the stranger’s eyes met 
hers, she said in French with a friendly smile, “You 
won’t mind if I speak to you? I’d like so much to 
have another girl to talk to.” 

For a second her listener looked puzzled, for 
Lucy’s French was much worse than her German. 
Then her face lighted comprehendingly, and a 
bright smile chased away all the scornful sadness 
from her look. 

“I shall be glad!” she exclaimed, her pretty 
voice somiding pleasantly on Lucy’s ears after the 
shouts of the German soldiers calling off the names 
upon their lists. Then, hesitating for a second, the 
girl said in careful, foreign-sounding English, “ If 
you prefer, we can talk in English. I speak enough 
178 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 


that you can understand me, though I make some 
mistakes at every moment.” 

“ Oh, yes,” cried Lucy, enormously relieved at 
the loosening of her tongue. “ I can understand 
you perfectly, and you tell me if I talk too fast.” 

“ Then let us sit on the floor,” the French girl 
suggested, dropiDing down as she spoke against the 
wall. 

Lucy quickly followed suit, and when they were 
seated side by side on the rickety floor, which shook 
and creaked under many footsteps, her companion 
continued, “ I know a little of you already, Clem- 
ence, our servant, has told me how you came here 
to see your father.” A look of such keen sympathy 
shone in the blue eyes fixed on hers that Lucy for 
a moment could not speak, and the French girl 
added, ‘‘ You are American, no? Tell me your 
name.” 

“Lucy Gordon. And I Imow part of yours. 
You are Mademoiselle de la Tour, but what is your 
first name? ” 

“ Michelle. It was the poilu who was with you 
when you saw me in the street who has told you 
that. He knows well this town. He was — how 
you call it? Jar dirtier of my uncle, very near here, 
before the war.” 

Brelet had in fact told Lucy more of Michelle de 
la Tour than her name. H^ had described the first 
179 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


German advance early in the war, which had driven 
the widow and her little daughter from their beauti- 
ful country-place to find refuge in the town. Since 
then things had gone from bad to worse with this 
family, once so honored and fortunate. Madame 
de la Tour's only son was fighting for his country, 
while his mother and sister were left, poor and 
needy, in German hands. 

Lucy wondered what stories of privation and 
sacrifice Michelle's lips could tell. But she also 
guessed that she would hear little of them. Im- 
pelled by an instinctive confidence and liking which 
made her feel more warmly toward this girl than 
five minutes’ acquaintance warranted, she began 
telling her a little of her own history. Of her com- 
ing from England, of her father’s recovery in the 
midst of the German advance, of her mother’s vain 
attempts to reach them, and lastly she spoke of 
Bob. Not, of course, of his visit since the town’s 
capture, for Lucy had learned prudence enough in 
the last week. She did not say a word that could 
have brought danger to any friend of the Allies, 
however unlikely it was that her English would be 
understood. Michelle heard her with an eager in- 
tentness, and Lucy^s friendly interest seemed re- 
flected in her listener’s eyes, which in their chang- 
ing brightness expressed her thoughts far better 
than her halting English. At last she turned to 
180 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 


where her mother sat, and reached out an eager 
hand to her. 

Maman! I have a friend — a little Americaine, 
Mees, here is my mother.” 

Lucy crawled over and held out a dusty hand to 
Aladame de la Tour, who gave her in return a firm, 
lingering clasp of her delicate fingers. Michelle’s 
mother had her daughter’s radiant smile, and it hid 
for an instant even the heavy lines of weariness and 
anxiety in her pale face. 

“ I am very glad if you will be company to 
my little girl,” she said, in better English than 
IMichelle’s. At the same time her dark eyes 
searched Lucy’s face, as though the terrible years 
of doubt, dread and suspicion had made her slow 
to accept any friendship, even one so innocent as 
this little American’s. But Lucy’s frank, honest 
glance seemed to convince her. She patted her 
hand and smiled again, as though the ever-lurking 
dangers were forgotten for the moment in motherly 
pity for the lonely child before her. 

“ Michelle,” she said quickly, “ you must ask la 
petite to come and visit us. Very sad it must be 
for her always in the hospital.” 

“ Wiil you come, MeesV^ asked Michelle, eagerly. 

“ Yes, but please call me Lucy,” was the prompt 
reply, to which Michelle agreed with a nod and a 
smile, saying: 

i8i 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ You, too, call me Michelle. So it is much 
pleasanter.” 

“ Where do you live? ” was on the tip of Lucy’s 
tongue, but at that moment she saw Brelet making 
energetic signals to her across the room. With a 
sudden conscience-stricken remembrance of her 
supplies next door, she sprang up and bade her new 
friends a hasty good-bye. 

“ I hope to see you very soon again,” she found 
time to say, before she squeezed her way through 
the increasing crowd. 

“All right, Brelet, just wait a minute until I get 
my things. Is Miss Willis ready to go? ” she asked 
the x)oilu, who stood by the door, his full basket 
slung over his shoulder. 

“ Yes, I will come with Mademoiselle,” he said, 
following Lucy outside to the other door, where a 
scanty supply of the articles she wanted were 
handed from the desk after a further wait of a 
quarter of an hour. 

All during the hot walk home Lucy thought of 
Michelle and wondered how soon she should be 
able to see her again. That afternoon as soon as 
she sat down to work on the torn linen with Eliza- 
beth, she asked her old nurse how she could manage 
to visit her new friend. “ You see, I suppose she 
works in the French hospital with her mother, so I 
don’t know how we can do any work together. 

182 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 


Will the Germans let me go to her house? ” she 
asked doubtfully. 

“ The Germans here not so many are that they 
will bother to see what you do, unless you the town 
try to leave,” was Elizabeth’s answer. “ When I 
in the morning to the cottage in the meadows go, 
you may come with me and stop at the house of 
your friend.” 

“ Oh, do you know where she lives? ” cried Lucy, 
overjoyed. 

“ Surely do I. Near by to where stood the 
sentry when we passed him the other night.” 

Lucy left off working toward sundown to go and 
sit with her father, and in him she had an interested 
listener to Elizabeth’s plan for visiting Michelle. 

“ I’m so glad you’ve found a friend, little daugh- 
ter,” he said, with sober satisfaction. “ It must be 
so almighty hard and lonesome for you here. But 
remember, you’re never to cross the town even that 
far without Elizabeth or some one else from the 
hospital.” 

Lucy nodded, thinking rather guiltily of her 
determination to visit Captain Beattie on the first 
night that Elizabeth was off duty. 

Just now, though, she had only one thought in 
her head. It is no small thing to find a companion 
one’s own age after many days spent among grown- 
ups. And this girl had appealed to Lucy from the 

183 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


first glimpse she caught of her in the street a week 
ago. Lucy was not given to rushing headlong into 
friendships, but she did follow her impulses frankly, 
and on the whole did not often have reason to re- 
gret it. 

By the following morning Elizabeth had for- 
gotten all about Lucy’s inquiries of the day before, 
and looked up in surprise when she came early into 
the dining-room greeting her with, “ Well, Eliza- 
beth, when may we start? ” 

Lucy had risen at daybreak, obtained Miss 
Pearse’s consent to her plan, and arranged break- 
fast trays for the convalescents an hour under the 
nurse’s direction. Then she had sat with her 
father a while, for it was early in the day that he 
felt most rested and ready for conversation. Now 
she felt that it was time her wish was gratified, and 
sighed regretfully when Elizabeth answered: 

“ So soon as I can I will go. Miss Lucy. But 
first I have some work to do, and the Sergeant must 
sign us the permissions for to-day.” 

“ Oh, all right,” agreed Lucy, somewhat pacified 
at sight of the breakfast Elizabeth was placing on 
the table. 

It was a beautiful early summer morning, with 
white clouds piled against the soft blue sky, and the 
sun just warm enough to make the shade feel 
pleasant. After the unusual heat of the past few 
184 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 


days it was exhilarating to both mind and body. 
Lucy felt filled to the brim with life and energy. 
In spite of herself her spirits soared with hope and 
confidence in better things to come. Somehow she 
believed to-day, when she and Elizabeth set out 
from the hospital half an hour later, that Chateau- 
Plessis must soon be restored to its rightful owners. 
It seemed as though this nightmare of German con- 
quest were but a passing thing and could be bravely 
borne with that assurance. 

There was nothing whatever to suggest a change 
for the better in reality as they crossed the town. 
The guns were still silent, except for scattered 
shots, the German sentries still kept guard over the 
desolate streets, and the gangs of unhappy old men 
and boys labored at the piles of debris in sullen sub- 
mission. Still Lucy’s spirits refused to be much 
dampened. In her mind she debated schemes for 
carrying food to Captain Beattie, resolving to tell 
Michelle all about the prisoner at the first oppor- 
tunity. 

“ Look, Miss Lucy,” said Elizabeth, presently, 
as they neared the southeastern part of the town. 
“ There is the house of Madame de la Tour.” She 
pointed down the street to a little brick house with 
a gabled roof. “ It is one that she owns before, 
but now she goes there to live, because it is not much 
by the shells hurt.” 

185 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


In a minute they stopped in front of the door 
and Lucy asked eagerly, “ May I go in and see 
them now? Will you come back for me? ” She 
glanced along the street, which was deserted except 
for a shuffling old woman making her weary way 
toward the food depot, and looked back at Eliza- 
beth, who answered thoughtfully: 

“ I will be only an hour gone, but no longer can 
I wait to take you back. I have plenty work to do 
in the hospital to-day. Anyway, you will have 
with your friend a little visit. But first I wait to 
see if she is here.” 

Lucy ran up the short flight of steps and was just 
about to knock on the door when it opened and 
Michelle herself stood on the threshold, smiling a 
welcome. 

“ I have seen you by the window,” she explained, 
“ so I came to open.” 

“ Oh, I’m so glad you are at home,” said Lucy, 
delighted. “All right, Elizabeth! Don’t forget 
to come back for me.” 

She followed Michelle into the house, which was 
a bare, homely little place, oddly furnished with a 
few splendid pieces brought from the old home, 
eked out with simple stools and tables got from 
near at hand. But it was neat and homelike, and 
that meant much to Lucy, after her days spent in 
the midst of the hospital’s terrible activity. 

i86 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 


Madame de la Tour had already gone to the 
Freneh hospital, and Michelle was putting the 
house in order while the old servant was busy in the 
kitchen. 

“Sit down upon this chair,” she said to Lucy, 
bringing an old, carved armchair close to the open 
window. The windows had been open ever since 
the glass was shattered by the shell-fire, but now 
that summer had come, the boards which helped 
keep out the winter cold were put aside. 

Michelle pulled up a second chair for herself, and 
taking some knitting on her lap, exclaimed with a 
look of pleasant anticipation, “ Now we are com- 
fortable, no? It is so long since I have company. 
I feel almost strange to see a friend.” 

“ There is so much I want to talk about, I can’t 
think where to begin,” said Lucy frankly. But as 
she spoke she remembered her need of making an- 
other visit to the old prison, and realized also that 
such chance of speaking in safe privacy with 
Michelle might not come soon again. She did not 
have very long, either, for Elizabeth walked fast. 

“ Michelle, I want first to tell you about my 
brother’s coming here the other night,” she began 
quickly. 

“Your brother — he come here?” gasped Michelle, 
her English failing her in her amazement. 

“ Yes,” Lucy nodded. She plunged into her 
^ 187 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


story and repeated the whole incident of Bob’s com- 
ing and of her own visit to Captain Beattie’s prison. 
By the time she finished Michelle’s eyes were shin- 
ing, her cheeks were flushed with pink, and the 
knitting lay unheeded in her hands. When Lucy 
stopped for breath she burst into such enthusiastic 
praise and comment that Lucy was almost over- 
come. 

“ Goodness, I didn’t do anything,” she said 
hastily, for she had not told the story with any idea 
of winning applause for herself. “ The reasons I 
want you to know about it are, first, because I hope 
you will let me bring things for Captain Beattie 
here, and stop for them on my way to the prison. 
Secondly, because we are friends, and I wanted to 
tell you about Bob.” 

Michelle’s face was a study; the strangest mix- 
ture of warm sympathy and a kind of puzzled 
doubt. Lucy looked at her wonderingly, for she 
answered with evident sincerity, “ Very gladly will 
I help you to take things to the poor Englishman. 
I will go with you if I may — I long so to help a 
little bit ! Oh, Lucy, only to make pass that news 
of Argenton across the German lines ! ” 

Lucy’s heart eagerly responded to this wish, but 
a queer discomfort at the baffling look in INIichelle’s 
eyes kept her a moment silent. Suddenly she 
realized that while she had told this almost stranger 
188 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 


her dearest secrets, Michelle, on the other hand, 
had not opened her lips on the subject of her 
brother, or of her hopes for the success of the Allies. 
Lucy was too candid and impulsive to bear this 
state of things unquestioningly. She looked into 
Michelle’s troubled face and asked, “ Why won’t 
you tell me anything about yourself and your 
family, Michelle? I’ve trusted you in speaking of 
Bob’s coming. Don’t you trust me? ” 

The French girl started, hesitated, looked again 
into Lucy’s wondering eyes, and burst into a flood 
of speech. 

“ Oh, Lucy, I know you are with us — like all 
America! But some Americans are not enough on 
guard against our enemies. For what you are a 
friend with that German woman, who has the hus- 
band in tha fight against us? ” 

“ Of course! What a donkey I am! ” exclaimed 
Lucy, relieved beyond words as things were thus 
made plain to her. “ I forgot all about Elizabeth, 
Michelle, or I should have guessed what you might 
think from seeing me always with her. You see, 
Elizabeth was our old nurse in America — and I’ve 
known her since I was four years old. But that 
would not be enough to make us real friends now. 
She is just as pro-ally as we are. She does not wish 
to see the Kaiser win.” 

As Michelle still looked utterly unconvinced, 
189 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Lucy went back to tell of Elizabeth’s rescue of Bob 
from German hands the year before. She did not 
stop until Michelle knew of Bob’s confidence in the 
German woman’s sincerity, of the message dropped 
from the airplane, and of Elizabeth’s repudiation 
of her country’s war aims and her promise to help 
in all Lucy’s efforts. 

Michelle sat silent and astonished, her blue eyes 
fixed upon Lucy’s face. 

“ Does she hate Germany? ” she asked at last. 

“ Oh, no, but she hates the Junkers ruling her. 
It is for Germany’s own sake that she is pro-ally. 
Do you see what I mean? Besides, she loves 
America, where she lived so long. It was the lies 
that they told her about America that first taught 
her the truth.” 

Michelle reflected for a long moment. Then she 
said slowly, “ Lucy, I know your brother would not 
be deceived, and I believe what you tell me. But it 
is hard to think the wife of a Boche soldier to be 
pro-ally.” 

“ Karl isn’t a soldier — he’s too old. He’s only 
a cook. He was our cook for nearly ten years at 
home. Anyway, Michelle, you know that I’m all 
right, and you will soon see that Elizabeth is too. 
I know how you feel, for I wouldn’t have believed 
her myself, though I’ve known and trusted her so 
long, if she had not brought the message from Bob.” 

190 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 


Michelle nodded quickly. “ Lucy, I go to tell 
you now about my brother. But all the same, 
though I believe you, promise me you will not tell 
the old nurse a word of what I say.” 

“ I promise,” said Lucy, wondering. 

An ever-present fear, the look that Madame de la 
Tour’s glance had held when she first saw Lucy’s 
face, lighted Michelle’s clear eyes as she bent for- 
ward and whispered: 

“ My brother Armand is a spy for the French 
army. Once already after the first German victory 
he made his way into the town.” 

“ How could he ! ” breathed Lucy with fast beat- 
ing heart, sudden glorious possibilities awaking in 
her thoughts. 

“ I tell you how,” said Michelle, her voice trem- 
bling with pride and emotion at her brother’s 
gallant exploit. Changed from Michelle’s slow 
and halting English, the story of Armand de la 
Tour’s entrance into the captured town was this : 

During an attempted night-raid made by a dozen 
Germans on the French trenches before Chateau- 
Plessis, one of the Germans fell, mortally wounded, 
in no-man’s-land, close to the French lines. Ar- 
mand, wearing the uniform of a German soldier, 
leaped out and took the fallen man’s place in the 
darkness. The German attacking party, with 
Armand among them, regained their own trenches, 
191 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


the Germans surprised at the sudden pause in the 
rifle fire from the French side. Dawn found the 
spy inside the town, having made a perilous way in 
on pretense of special duty. Once under the shelter 
of his mother’s roof, he obtained the information he 
came for and at nightfall returned to the German 
trenches. Having arranged with his friends on the 
French side a preconcerted time and place, he went 
over the top in a jDretended attack and reached his 
own lines in safety. 

This feat had led directly to the capkire of the 
town by the French and American troops — the 
action in which Lucy’s father had been wounded. 

There was no chance, so far as the Allies knew, 
of learning anything in Chateau-Plessis now, but 
Michelle and her mother knew that anxiety on their 
behalf would lead Armand to rim great risks to 
enter the town again, and they dreaded lest he 
attempt it. 

“ If he should, Michelle,” cried Lucy, thrilled at 
this story of unselfish heroism, “ he could take back 
word from Captain Beattie of what they long to 
know.” 

That is why I make haste to tell you,” said 
Michelle, nodding. “ Better you get the English 
Capitaine to write you what he loiows, and you 
bring it here; for though Armand wear the German 
uniform, he dare not show himself about the streets. 

192 


A LITTLE FRENCH HEROINE 


Look,” she added, pointing through the window, 
“ there is the German woman come for you. Poor 
thing, she has the heavy basket.” 

Lucy was not sure whether Michelle really be- 
lieved in Elizabeth or not, but more than satis- 
fied in any case with her morning’s visit, she got 
up, nodding to Elizabeth that she was coming. 
Michelle, rising too, slipped an arm through Lucy’s 
with shy friendliness as they went out toward the 
door. 


193 


CHAPTER IX 


THE EIGHT OVER ARGENTON 

Bob Gordon was reading a letter from his mother 
as he sat in the principal room of a little farmhouse 
outside of Cantigny. The place had long been 
abandoned by its owners, and now sheltered a dozen 
American airmen and as many mechanics, in spite 
of the serious damage it had suffered when the town 
was taken. Bob was seated on a three-legged stool, 
tilted dangerously as he propped his feet against 
the chimneypiece — or what was left of it in a heap 
of brick and mortar fragments. The morning sun 
streamed in on the earthen floor and fell across his 
face as he read the closely written lines. His thin, 
brown cheeks were tinged with healthy color, and 
his whole lean figure in its well-worn khaki looked 
full of life and vigor. But just now his face was 
serious and sad, and the eyes he raised from the 
letter toward the sunny window were darkened with 
painful anxiety. 

He could see his mother’s pale face before him as 
he read, her lips set with that brave firmness that 
war-time women learned to keep in the midst of 
194 


THE FIGHT OVER ARGENTON 


fear and suffering. Even in her letter she tried to 
hide her thoughts, and to write hoj)efully for Bob’s 
sake, though she spoke frankly of the trouble they 
shared together. 

“ I can think of nothing but Lucy, Bob, wonder- 
ing when the time will ever come that I shall see 
her safe and beyond the power of the enemy. But 
since that night you saw her with Elizabeth, I can 
find courage to hope again. How strange things 
are — the dreadful and the good all mixed together ! 
For I feel so sure that your father would not have 
made his wonderful recovery if dear little Lucy had 
not been there beside him.” 

Bob looked up once more, pondering. His 
reveries these days were one long rebellion against 
his helplessness. All his courage and strength of 
purpose were not enough to bring his little sister out 
of Chateau-Plessis across the hotly contested battle 
line. He and his comrades had all they could do 
to hold back the German tide, without yet advanc- 
ing to retake the town. The success of the Amer- 
ican troops at Cantigny could be repeated at 
Chateau-Plessis — must be — but not without ade- 
quate plans of attack and further reinforcements — 
those reinforcements that every one wanted at once. 
‘‘ Thank heaven, our men are coming overseas now 
at a good rate,” he thought with a sudden hope 
illuminating his dejection. ‘‘And things seem just 

195 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


endurable in Chateau-Plessis. The Boches are few 
enough there, except those who are flat on their 
backs.” For Bob had news from inside the cap- 
tured town of which Lucy never guessed. 

His restless and unsatisfactory thoughts were 
cut short by the sound of a footstep on the stone 
threshold behind him. He swung around toward 
the door, while the newcomer at sight of him ex- 
claimed: 

“ Here you are, Bob ! I’ve been looking for you 
on the field. We’re to go up at once. The ser- 
geant is running around with orders just tele- 
phoned from up the line.” The speaker was a 
young aviator about Bob’s age, so wrapped up in 
his leather helmet that little of his face could be 
seen but a pair of twinkling blue eyes. 

“ What are the orders, Larry? ” asked Bob, 
getting up and cramming his letter into his pocket. 
“ The guns don’t seem to be firing very heavily.” 

“ No, it’s the same old business. The French 
observers are trying to get a peep at Argenton. 
The Boche scouts seemed to be asleep for a while 
and the French made some bold swoops, but now 
the enemy has waked up with a vengeance, and if 
the observers are to see anything they must have 
some guards to engage the Boche. Where are 
your duds? I’ve got to go back to my plane. 
You’re to go up with Jourdin, I think. He’s got 
196 


THE FIGHT OVER ARGENTON 

two fine new machine guns on his Spad — you ought 
to bring down half the German air force with them. 
Well, I’m going.” 

Bob slipped into his flying coat, put on his hel- 
met, picked up half a dozen things he needed, and 
went out just as the sergeant met him at the door 
with the orders in his hand. 

“All right. Sergeant; I’m off,” he said, return- 
ing the salute. “ Where is Major Kitteredge, do 
you know? ” 

“ He’s on the field, sir, or was a minute ago. I 
think the Lieutenant will find him near the stables.” 

The sergeant pointed across the farmyard to a 
broad field behind it, and Bob nodded to him as he 
started off. The sergeant was a friend of his, and 
Bob never had a moment’s talk with him before 
his thoughts turned with a pang at his heart to that 
other friend. Sergeant Cameron, whom he had left 
behind in a German prison. He had sent him many 
packages of food and comforts since then, and had 
even received a printed card of acknowledgment 
from him, forwarded under Red Cross supervision. 
But what were presents of food and tobacco — price- 
less as they were to the prisoner — compared with 
freedom and a chance to strike a blow in the good 
cause on such a day as this? 

Bob crossed the farmyard and vaulted the fence 
into the hay-field. The old barn had been con- 

197 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


verted into a workshop, and near it stood a dozen 
men preparing for flight. Six biplanes were wait- 
ing on the field, to some of which the mechanics 
were giving a last careful inspection. Bob found 
Major Kitteredge beside one of them. 

“ Good-morning, Major,” he said, saluting. 
“Any further orders for me? ” 

“ You are to go up as gunner to-day, Gordon,” 
said the officer, looking up from the papers he held. 
“ We’re short one gunner, and Jourdin wants you. 
He has received all the orders I have here, so he 
will pass them on to you. Get off as soon as 
possible.” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

Major Kitteredge had known Bob when Bob 
was twelve years old and he, the Major, was a lieu- 
tenant in his father’s company. In their most 
formal intercourse there was an undercurrent of 
friendliness never quite hidden. He watched Bob 
keenly for a second now, as the young officer crossed 
the field to Captain Jourdin’s side. 

“ You are here, eh, Gordon? ” said the French- 
man, throwing away his cigarette with a smile of 
welcome. “ Then we will lead the rest and be the 
first off the field.” He drew on his gloves and 
shouted orders to his French mechanics, who 
shouted back “ Out, mon capitaine! ” through the 
whirling of a propeller close by. 

198 


THE FIGHT OVER ARGENTON 


The big biplane in which Bob now took the front, 
or gunner’s seat, strapping himself in behind the 
two machine guns, was a far different craft from 
the little thirteen-metre monoplane in which he had 
landed behind Chateau-Plessis. Foreseeing, that 
night, that he might have to dodge and fly for his 
life, he had chosen one of these swift, strong little 
hornets, capable of performing the most breakneck 
evolutions at incredible speed. But this morning 
he and Jourdin were out to face and force back the 
enemy, and the heavy-armed Spad was built for 
combat. 

Jourdin gave him the plan of operation in a few 
quick sentences. The biplanes were to act each one 
independently, attempting to drive off as many as 
possible of the enemy planes from their own scouts. 
At the same time they must keep a sharp lookout 
for whatever information they might be in a position 
to pick up. 

“ We will fly north to Chateau-Plessis, then on 
to Argenton,” he finished. “ Try the speaking- 
tube, Gordon. All right? Eh, bien! PartonsV" 
he shouted to his mechanic, who responded by giv- 
ing a twirl to the propeller which sent it spinning. 

Jourdin opened his throttle and pressed forward 
on the control stick. They were off doAvn the field 
in a buoyant, bounding rush. Bob settled himself 
comfortably, fastening the flap of his helmet. 

199 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Jourdin pulled back his stick, and the machine 
steadied to a glide, swaying ever so little. The 
rushing grass disappeared from alongside and in a 
moment the earth had grown a distant scene below. 

In ten minutes they were flying swiftly north- 
ward at a height of four thousand feet. Two other 
flyers had risen from the field after them and were 
in close pursuit. No enemy planes as yet dis- 
turbed the solitude, and Bob fell to looking over 
his machine guns, the cold air of these high spaces 
blowing pleasantly against his face. • Jourdin led 
the way confidently for the little squadron, and 
where he led any airman was well content to follow. 
In half an hour they were over Chateau-Plessis, 
while below them the German trenches spouted fire 
from long-range anti-aircraft guns. The bombard- 
ment at this point was not heavy, the enemy’s per- 
sistent attempt to push the French and American 
line further west having met with dismal failure. 
A few German airplanes darted up from their 
guard over the trenches, but Jourdin had no desire 
to engage in battle here. He pointed his machine 
upward, and Bob had no more than a glimpse of 
the little town that meant so much to him, before 
they had mounted to five thousand feet, just below 
the clouds which hung under the deep blue arch in 
soft fluffy piles. Below them the enemy planes 
had given up the chase. The town was only a little 
200 


THE FIGHT OVER ARGENTON 


square made up of dots and lines. Before it, where 
the trenches ran, rose little smoky puffs that hung 
in the still air. Even the bursting of the shells was 
deadened to a dull roar. Captain Jourdin spoke 
through the tube. 

“ Wfe’ll go a little higher, Gordon, and hide be- 
hind those clouds. We shall sight the enemy any 
moment now, and shall have the advantage if we 
take him imawares.” 

While he spoke Chateau-Plessis was left behind. 
Argenton was only fifteen minutes distant. Again 
he pointed the big plane upward another thousand 
feet, into the midst of a great enveloping, smother- 
ing bank of cloudy vapor. The soft, cottony mass 
gave way, dissolving into clinging wisps of fog that 
trailed along with them like streamers. Then they 
burst through a hole in the cloud roof into the upper 
sunlight — a world of celestial loveliness. Often as 
Bob had risen above the clouds, he could never do 
it without marveling anew at the strange beauty 
around him when the airplane pushed its way 
through the last foggy barriers. No sky, however 
beautiful, seen from the earth could compare with 
the absolute clearness of the dazzling blue about 
them. Below, the clouds were banked again into 
close, white masses, tinged here and there with a 
gold edge where the sun struck them. A mile be- 
hind came following two growing dots — a part of 
201 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


the squadron which, it seemed to Bob, had laid 
aside for the moment all thought of battle and, like 
themselves, were idly exploring this upper dream- 
land. 

A rift in the clouds below put an end to these 
thoughts, for through it he saw eight airplanes dart- 
ing back and forth, maneuvering for position. Be- 
yond and below them, near the narrow line of the 
Avre River, lay the town of Argenton, and, an- 
other mile to the west, the old medieval fort behind 
the fortified ridge. Bob turned his binoculars 
upon the moving planes, and as he focused the glass 
he spoke to Jourdin. “ Do you see them? Go 
down a thousand feet.” 

“All right,” returned the pilot promptly. He 
pushed the stick and the machine dropped swiftly. 
Bob could see the Allied emblems now on the tails of 
three of the planes. They were French scouts, and 
the other five were German Taubes, distinguished 
by their shape as well as by the great black crosses 
painted on their wings. At a little distance another 
group was swaying in combat. He shifted his glass 
to these and saw that here Allies and enemies were 
equally matched. Two French scouts and one 
American battle-plane were fighting three German 
fliers. 

Jourdin seemed to divine his thoughts, for, with- 
out waiting for a signal, he bore swiftly down upon 
202 


THE FIGHT OVER ARGENTON 


the Taubes which had surrounded the three French- 
men just below and were pouring a deadly fire 
upon them. The scouts were willing enough to 
run away but, unable to do so, were fighting gamely 
against impossible odds. Another moment and 
Jourdin had brought his plane and its weapons into 
range. Bob turned the trigger handle of his ma- 
chine gun and pumped a hail of bullets into the 
wing of the Taube nearest him. He saw the Ger- 
man aviator dart a glance upward as he tried to 
get his plane out of range in a quick climbing turn. 
But, before he could sheer off, his wing hung 
warped and crippled, the silk cut almost to ribbons. 
The pilot pointed downward, making a try for a 
landing on one wing, three thousand feet below. 
Bob saw no more of him. He turned his gun on a 
Taube which had abandoned the scouts and was 
firing at him with furious and accurate aim. The 
bullets whizzed about the big battle-plane, but 
Jourdin did not remain an easy target. He took 
a tail-spin, dropped in short circles for a thousand 
feet, then came up again behind the enemy. Two 
more Americans had now arrived to engage the 
Taubes, and the scouts were out of danger. J our- 
din spoke into the tube at Bob’s ear. “ We’ll go on 
west. We’re not needed here. I should like to 
follow our scouts, who are making for the de- 
fenses.” 


203 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


As he spoke they mounted a little and flew off 
toward the edge of the town marked by the Ger- 
man trenches. A second plane of the squadron 
followed them as they crossed the French lines and 
flew over the enemy’s trenches, above the fortified 
ridge. Below, the anti-aircraft gunners were 
sending up a continuous fire of shells to hinder their 
further descent. Around them hovered the French 
scouts, vainly endeavoring to catch a glimpse of 
the camouflaged defenses through the curtain of 
fire and smoke spread out beneath them. 

“ It isn’t a bit of use,” Bob thought bitterly, 
after half an hour of this useless watching. “ What 
can we see from here? We are keeping the Boches 
from sending more planes after our scouts, but 
what does that amount to? ” 

As he fumed in helpless impatience, scheming a 
desperate attempt to penetrate that curtain of fire, 
Jourdin’s calm voice, in its deliberate-sounding 
English, came to him with a shock of reality. 

“ We’ll go down now, Gordon. I have orders 
to report at noon through the field telephone sta- 
tion near here, behind our lines. Our squadron 
can be called together, and at least put some of 
these Taubes out of the combat. The scouts can 
accomplish nothing now.” 

“All right,” Bob answered reluctantly. He was 
roused to the point where it was hard to give up 
204 


THE FIGHT OVER ARGENTON 


without having done anything more than scare off 
a few German fliers. “ Well, the day’s not over,” 
he consoled himself, casting a resentful glance down 
at the German defenses along the ridge, where 
smoke and flame were spouting from a dozen bat- 
teries. The pilot’s feet were on the rudder and 
already the plane was making westward again 
across the French lines. 

Though Captain Jourdin was flying only tempo- 
rarily with the Americans at Cantigny, he had been 
given orders to report the morning’s events to 
headquarters, because he could do so with the 
greatest ease and dispatch. To most of the Amer- 
ican fliers the country along the battle line was still 
a thing to be puzzled out with the aid of maps and 
glasses by day, and stars and compass by night. 
But to Jourdin it was old and familiar ground, for 
this part of Picardy was his home, and these ruined 
fields and villages he had known since boyhood. 
Bob thought of Argenton only as a town half des- 
troyed by shell-fire, a place he could always find 
easily from above, because of the still-standing 
towers of the old fort behind the blazing line of 
German batteries. But to the Frenchman it had a 
different meaning. It was the little town whose 
quaint, cobbled streets he had often passed through 
on summer days in his childhood to visit his grand- 
father, whose old home outside Argenton was now 
205 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


a ruin. If it was late enough in the afternoon the 
peaceful townsfolk had brought their babies out to 
the old fort to hear the sunset bugle and see the 
soldiers change guard. No one would have be- 
lieved in those days that the Germans would ever 
hammer at its gates and take possession. 

Behind the French lines the country stretched 
in rolling fields to a burned wood. Jourdin steered 
for a little clump of larches beside which was a tele- 
phone shack, sheltered by a bit of rising ground. 
Bob had the glasses at his eyes, and swiftly picked 
out a landing-place. 

“ To the right, Jourdin — make it a hundred yards 
before you dip. There’s a nice level bit before 
those shell-holes begin.” 

The pilot leisurely studied the groimd, shut off 
his gas, and glided beautifully downward until the 
earth rose to meet them with a rush, and the wheels 
of the big plane touched and ran along the grass 
to a gradual standstill. 

Bob unstrapped himself and got out, glad to 
stretch his legs. But the next moment he caught 
sight of a wire slightly out of adjustment on the 
plane’s broad wing, and pointed it out to his com- 
panion. ‘‘That can’t be left, Jourdin. Shall I 
fix it while you go to report? ” 

“ There’s a mechanic in the shack. I’ll bring him 
out,” said J ourdin. “ If we wait for the repair, let 
206 


THE FIGHT OVER ARGENTON 


us take this chance to eat our ration on the gi’ound. 
We shall have fifteen minutes.” 

“ Good idea,” said Bob with enthusiasm. As 
Jourdin walked off toward the shack he brought out 
the little packages of food and laid them on a con- 
venient rock. For a moment he forgot his dis- 
appointment at the morning’s failure. Nothing 
can rouse such an appetite as flying, and Bob had 
not yet learned to enjoy a meal snatched on the 
wing. He could read, write, think, in fact do many 
things during a swift flight, but he liked to eat on 
level ground. 

When Jourdin returned and set the mechanic to 
work, the two young aviators took off their gloves 
and helmets and, sitting down, devoured their 
rations of sandwiches and chocolate, along with a 
canteen of cool water. 

A gentle breeze was blowing from the west across 
the blackened fields. It blew the drifting smoke 
away from them, and except for the noise of the 
shells, it seemed almost peaceful in the deserted 
meadow. Above them the airplanes still floated, 
but none very near. F or the time being the F rench 
scouts had given up their search. On a little rising 
ground not far off stood a ruined windmill, its 
burned stumps of arms stretching out dismally 
above level shell-plowed earth that had once been 
a green wheat-field. There was an old brick chiin- 
207 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


ney near it, too — all that was left of a little farm- 
house. “ The Allies have got that much back, any- 
way,” Bob thought. “ The Boches were here last 
winter.” 

Captain Jour din had risen to his feet and was 
looking off across the fields in silence. More than 
once in their familiar intercourse Bob had recog- 
nized moments when the Frenchman’s devoted 
heart was bitterly wrung, and his whole mind dis- 
tracted from his work at sight of some such hard 
reminder of his country’s fate. The hands clasped 
behind his back clenched themselves tightly together 
as, turning, he said to Bob, “ I remember the wind- 
mill when that farm was a prosperous little place. 
The farmer had lived there many years.” 

Bob could not think of any answer. There was 
no asking for pity or encouragement in Jourdin’s 
calm, melancholy voice. It held more of resolute 
defiance than any German’s burst of bravado. Bob 
thought of the lines he had read in an English paper 
a few days before. They were spoken by a French- 
man, looking over the ruined fields of France, al- 
most as though the writer had seen Jourdin’s shin- 
ing, dark eyes and written for him; 

And we that remember the windmill spinning, 

We may go under, but not in vain. 

For our sons shall come in the new beginning 
And see that the windmill spins again. 

208 


THE FIGHT OVER ARGENTON 


"" C'est fini, mon capitaine/' said the soldier- 
mechanic, coming up with a quick salute and a back- 
ward gesture toward the airplane. 

Bob picked up his helmet, while Jourdin fol- 
lowed the man over to inspect his work. Bob 
looked up into the blue sky, streaked with feathery 
cloud streamers, devoutly hoping for better success 
in the afternoon’s offensive. A desperate eager- 
ness took hold of him once more. He had learned 
a part of the secret of the French soldier’s valor — 
what it means to be fighting to rescue one’s family 
and home — since his father and Lucy were prisoners 
in Chateau-Plessis. 

“ It is all right now,” said Jourdin, turning, as 
Bob came up, from a critical examination of the 
wing’s supports, “ Let us get off at once. Look 
there! ” He pointed upward to where three Ger- 
man planes were deliberately crossing the French 
lines, from which several aircraft quickly rose to 
intercept them. 

“ Most of our little squadron stayed near 
Chateau-Plessis to engage the enemy there,” said 
Captain Jourdin. “ I think we shall be needed to 
help drive these fellows back.” 

As he spoke so modestly of what might be ex- 
pected of him, the light of battle shone in the 
Frenchman’s eyes. He hurriedly completed his 
preparations for flight. Bob, no less eager, sec- 
209 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


onded him in silence, with one more quick glance 
at the planes now circling overhead. In five min- 
utes they were off down the meadow, and rising 
swiftly toward the scene of the fight. 

No sooner had the Germans seen the French 
planes mounting to the attack than they sent rein- 
forcements from their own lines. Evidently the 
persistent hovering of the Allies’ scouts over the 
Argenton defenses was beginning to annoy them. 
According to their usual tactics when suffering 
from wounded dignity, they prepared to take the 
offensive. As the battle-plane carrying Bob and 
Jourdin approached a height of six thousand feet, 
and came on a level with the combatants, the situa- 
tion had not as yet advanced beyond a skirmish. 
There were eight enemy and seven Allied planes, 
not counting the newcomer, which evened the num- 
bers. Of the French and American planes, three 
were heavy machines from the Cantigny squadron, 
the remaining five light, scouting craft. The Ger- 
mans were all armored planes, but three were of a 
heavy, slow-going type, almost invincible by bullet 
fire, but unable to quickly follow up an advantage. 
J ourdin gave one keen look around him, as though 
summing up the odds, then spoke through the tube 
to Bob: 

“We have a good chance of victory, Gordon, but 
we’ll have to fight hard for it! ” 

210 


THE FIGHT OVER ARGEHTON 


Bob was already convinced of that. He caught 
sight of Larry Eaton on his left, pouring a murder- 
ous fire from his Lewis gun into the heavy German 
craft maneuvering beside him. But he also saw 
the man who skilfully guided the Boche machine 
into position for a swift retaliation on Larry’s flank. 
This pilot was Von Arnheim,the German for whom 
Bob had been exchanged. One of his feet had been 
rendered useless by shrapnel fragments, but that 
had not prevented his returning to the air service. 
His steel-blue eyes shone out from behind his hel- 
met with all his old reckless audacity, and Bob felt 
his determination harden and his courage mount to 
fearlessness at sight of him. 

A big German plane swooped down upon him as 
these thoughts took shape. He saw the gunner 
jerking his weapon into range. A bare second 
quicker than his enemy, Bob began pumping his 
port machine gim. A jet of flame burst out, and 
the next moment the German machine quivered, its 
planes twisted to one side, and like a shot bird it 
fell from sight. 

Through the tube Bob faintly heard Jourdin 
shout, “To the left — look out! I’ll put you in 
range! ” He had no time to take breath after his 
recent victory, before two more of the enemy were 
upon him. The privilege of flying with the famous 
French ace had its perils, too. Every Boche who 

2II 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


could manage to do so made for Jourdin, hoping to 
down the hero who, once already disposed of, had 
returned by some miracle to active service. Jourdin 
brought his machine around in a climbing turn to 
avoid one aggressor, while Bob jpressed the handle 
of his starboard gun, hoping to rid himself of his 
right-hand opponent. Instead of the burst of flame 
which should have resulted, the gun remained 
silent — j ammed. 

Bob frantically maneuvered his other gun into 
position, but the Boche had opened a deadly fire 
upon him. Bullets spattered through the wings 
and whizzed around him. At the same instant a 
third enemy descended from above. Suddenly a 
machine gun began firing from the other side. Bob 
saw Larry Eaton’s face behind it, and the next 
moment his newest antagonist wavered, tilted, and 
the wreck hurtled down six thousand feet to earth. 
Bob could catch only a glimpse of this, for Jourdin 
had grasped the need of a momentary retreat. He 
made a tail-spin, fell a thousand feet, then, having 
thrown off his enemy, rose in a climbing circle while 
Bob remedied the jam in his gun and looked around 
for further developments. 

He had not long to wait. Close beside him a 
German plane was getting into range, and now it 
began a heavy fire in the midst of a series of plung- 
ing dives which did not allow Bob to return the fire 
212 


THE FIGHT OVER ARGENTON 


with any effect. Jourdin made another tail-spin, 
hoping to come up beneath the enemy, but the Ger- 
man was too quick for him. He dived again and 
came up in a swift turn beside the Frenchman, 
pouring out a hail of bullets. Bob was at a white 
heat of rage. “ Once more, Jourdin! ’’ he shouted. 

The pilot dived again, simultaneously with the 
German, and this time the enemy was caught at his 
own game. Jourdin slowed up and let the other 
plane sweep past. As the Boche shot upward he 
followed close in his wake, and for the first time 
Bob poured shot after shot from a range of a few 
feet. The big German machine continued swiftly 
upward, then it lost speed, fell tail foremost, re- 
covered, and finally nose-dived to the ground. 

Bob drew a long hard breath and glanced below 
him. The Allies were holding their own, but two 
of them were missing. Of the German planes three 
were gone. He saw no more than this before an- 
other airman made for him in a climbing turn. The 
two planes were in easy range and each gunner 
began to pour a deadly fire on his opponent. The 
bullets spattered around Bob over the big plane and 
lost themselves in space, and still both machines 
remained uninjured. Jourdin maneuvered with 
all his skill for an advantage, but his antagonist 
matched him at every turn. Bob had not even to 
snatch a look at the enemy pilot to know whose 
213 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


hand was on the throttle. V on Arnheim, pale and 
shining-eyed, sat behind his gunner as though 
calmly awaiting victory. But it would not be quite 
so easy as that, Bob thought. His mind was wildly 
excited, so that the sudden burning pain in his left 
shoulder seemed to be only a part of his mad eager- 
ness. Jourdin dipped and rose with incredible skill. 
The fire from the enemy was growing haphazard as 
the target dodged in every direction, and Bob’s 
steady hand on the trigger grew steadier as his 
brain grew hot and throbbing. Suddenly Jourdin 
gave a shout. The gunner of the enemy plane fell 
forward aeross his starboard gun. Von Arnheim 
snatched at the weapon beside him, but in that 
second Bob had sent a burst of fire through his right 
plane. The German gave one flashing glance at 
the torn, bullet-riddled wing, and pushed upon his 
stick. His big machine pointed swiftly downward. 
The next instant Jourdin followed, but this time 
Bob’s fire was less accurate in that dizzy descent. 
At three thousand feet Jourdin stopped in his 
downward flight and hovered, for Von Arnheim, 
useless wing and all, had guided his plane to a safe 
landing inside the German lines. 

For a second Bob’s disappointment outweighed 
all his victories, as his eyes followed his enemy’s 
retreat. He had risked death to go down inside 
his own lines, and Bob understood that feeling. 

214 


THE FIGHT OVER ARGENTON 


He thought Von Arnheim would have it in much 
stronger measure if he had ever endured the Ger- 
man sort of captivity. Bob knew that never again 
could he let himself be taken prisoner. From the 
French trenches over which they floated came a 
faint sound of voices. He peered over the side of 
the cockpit and saw hands and helmets waved in the 
air. They were cheering! His heart leaped with 
a sudden exultation. Then he glanced upward. 
The Allies were four to two — ^victory there, at any 
rate. 

“ Jourdin, do you hear them cheering? ” he asked 
through the tube, and as he spoke a strange and 
painful weakness overpowered him until he clutched 
at the hot barrel of the gun at his right. Cautiously 
he felt of his aching shoulder and drew away a hand 
wet with blood. “ So that’s it,” he murmured. 
“ I’ll have to go back, Jourdin — I’m sorry,” he 
said, unsteadily. 

The pilot’s quick eyes had already seen the red 
stain oozing through Bob’s torn leather sleeve. 
With a swift touch he sent the plane speeding 
through the air at ninety miles an hour, its nose 
pointed, above the silver ribbon of the Avre, back 
toward the safe shelter of Cantigny. 


215 


CHAPTER X 


THE PLAN OF THE DEFENSES 

It was a dull, gloomy day, with rain clouds dis- 
solving into showers at intervals, and the half- 
ruined streets of Chateau-Plessis looked sad and 
sodden in their battered abandonment. Only an 
occasional German soldier, wrapped in his poncho, 
or a woman hurrying by with a shawl over her head 
passed in front of the hospital. Within, things 
looked dreary too, Lucy thought, as in her little 
cap and apron she helped Brelet wheel the last of 
the convalescents into the hall off the old court of 
justice. For the past three days she had under- 
taken the task of finding amusement and occupa- 
tion for fifteen or twenty men on the road to re- 
covery, and she had found it the hardest kind of 
work, since her own spirits were none too high or 
hopeful. Some of the convalescents were Ger- 
mans, too, and Lucy had not quite mastered the 
Red Cross motto of “ Neutrality, Humanity.” 

But to-day she was cheerful and felt equal to 
doing her very best. The most trying work grows 
easier if it is done in pleasant company, and Major 
Greyson had obtained from the German senior 
216 


THE PLAN OF THE DEFENSES 


surgeon an indifferent consent for Michelle de la 
Tour to help occasionally among the convalescents 
at the American hospital. There Michelle sat 
now, by one of the windows opening on the garden, 
talking to a French soldier with bandaged eyes. 
Lucy smiled across the room at her, and in her 
gratitude for her friend’s presence on this dark and 
depressing morning, she seated herself by the side 
of a young German, who leaned languidly back in 
his chair, still weak from fever. 

“ What would you like, Paul?” she asked, kindly. 
“ Some water? All right — in a moment.” 

She rose to bring the water and, after satisfying 
half a dozen other demands for it, helped Brelet dis- 
tribute the few books and papers available among 
those well enough to read. Some of the men who 
felt too weak to make any effort were wheeled in 
front of the windows, though the outlook of driving 
rain on crumbling walls Lucy did not think par- 
ticularly cheering for the wounded poilus. It was 
extraordinary, though, how little attention it took 
to brighten up a soldier’s tired face. Often a few 
words were enough to start them talking among 
themselves. Of the twenty in the hall eight were 
Americans, and the poilus always got some amuse- 
ment in practising their English on their new 
allies. 

Michelle, far more inventive and resourceful than 
217 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Lucy, made up her mind at once to help find occu- 
pation for the convalescents. 

“ Maman and I have already done so in our hos- 
pital,” she said eagerly. “It is not so hard — 
though of course we can do little.” 

“ What, for instance? ” asked Lucy, puzzling. 
“We can’t possibly get any more papers — except 
German ones, and the German patients have too 
many of those already.” 

“ No, but there are other ways,” Michelle in- 
sisted. “ We have many willows over by Mere 
Breton’s cottage. I have brought the young 
branches for our poilus to cut with the knife and 
weave paniers. Oh, they are glad to have work in 
their fingers! Also, Clemence and I dug the clay 
from the little brook near the old chateau. It is 
far from here. They send a Boche soldier with us. 
I knoAv well the place, for Armand and I were 
friends, in the peace, with the children of the 
chateau. The poilus can make of the clay all 
kinds of cups and bowls. I know that is pleasant 
work, for Armand and I have made them, when I 
was sick long ago and he played with me.” 

“ I never thought of those things, Michelle,” 
said Lucy, but in the same breath she added, doubt- 
fully, “ Who will show them how to make baskets? 
Can you? ” 

“ Oh, you will find more than one soldier here 
218 


THE PLAN OF THE DEFENSES 

who already knows. Only we have to bring the 
willow twigs, and they will make of them baskets in 
one afternoon.” 

“ I’ll get some to-morrow. I can go to the 
meadows, if Elizabeth comes with me. I must stay 
a while with Paul Schwartz now, Michelle. He is 
not well to-day, and I said I would look after him.” 

“ I will come with you for a moment,” said 
Michelle, making a wry face, but hiding her feel- 
ings quickly. “ They will never let me come here 
to help if I do nothing for the Bodies. He looks 
not so vilain as the rest, I think — like a poor silly 
boy.” 

The German to whom Michelle gave this unusual 
praise had certainly nothing bold nor ferocious 
about him. As he lay weakly back in his chair, his 
blue eyes wandered about the hall with a kind of 
vague curiosity, his blond hair lying in uncut locks 
against his pale face. For the little that Lucy had 
seen of him, he had been quiet and melancholy, 
making few demands on her attention or on that of 
the nurses. So far, she had not felt interested 
enough to ask him questions, but this morning as 
she sat down beside him, with sewing in her hands, 
she could think of no other way to amuse him. 

“ Where do you live, Paul?” she asked, wrinkling 
her forehead a little over the effort of speaking 
German. Michelle laughed at her labored accent, 
219 


CAPTAIN LUCY IN FRANCE 


but the soldier understood her, and his dull, blue 
eyes lighted up a trifle at her words. 

“ I come from the Schwarzwald, Frdulein/' he 
answered, nodding his head slowly as he spoke, as 
though for him the simple fact was full of meaning. 

“ Oh, do you? said Lucy, suddenly reduced to 
silence. His words held a strange meaning for her, 
too. The Black Forest, in which she had never set 
foot, was familiar ground, nevertheless. All Eliza- 
beth’s stories in the old days had been about it. It 
was full of gnomes and elves — that she knew. The 
people you first met when you ventured mto it were 
Hansel and Gretel, going toward the house built 
of cake and candy. She had never thought of Ger- 
man soldiers living there. 

“What did you do in the forest, Paul?” she 
asked vaguely. 

“ I lived there,” said the soldier, his interest grow- 
ing with awakening recollection, “ in my little house 
with my family, just inside the forest’s border. I 
am a wood-cutter and we had a fine herd of pigs. 
The market town is not three miles away — I had a 
donkey, too.” The light died out of his eyes as he 
looked gloomily down at his injured leg. Lucy 
thought she had never seen a man so unfitted to be 
a soldier. 

“ How long have you been fighting? ” asked 
Michelle, her eyes lifted suddenly to his face. 

220 


THE PLAN OF THE DEFENSES 


“About — three years.” The German seemed 
uncertain. “ Yes,” he added, nodding thought- 
fully, “ it must be all that time since the day I got 
my papers and was told to join my regiment. At 
the village I heard how the Russians were getting 
ready to invade the Fatherland. Then how the 
English would attack us on the other side. At first 
my wife hoped they would not call me — there were 
so many others. They said, too, that we could 
quickly beat the enemy. But they did call me.” 
He ended with a dull melancholy that took the 
little life out of his face. “ I had to leave every- 
thing and go. I don’t know how things are with 
Hedwig now.” 

“ But the Russians weren’t invading Germany,” 
said Lucy indignantly, while Michelle fiashed a 
warning glance at her. She lowered her voice, but 
finished obstinately, “Nor the English, either.” 

“ Yes, that is what we heard,” maintained Paul, 
indifferently. “ Our Kaiser called us to defend the 
Fatherland. It was all strange to me, for we don’t 
get much news there in the forest.” 

Michelle smiled at Lucy’s flushed and angry face.. 
“ It is no use to talk with him of that,” she said in 
English, with a shake of the head. “ He would not 
understand you — ^not in many days. The Kaiser 
told him *Allons! Marchez!^ — that’s all he 
knows.” 


^21 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Lucy was silent a moment. “ Were you ever in 
the Black Forest, Michelle? ” she asked, giving up 
her argument. 

“ Oh, yes, often. Two summers I have been 
there. It is beautiful — so big and still.” Miehelle’s 
eyes shone with the words, as though at the remem- 
branee of happy summer days gone by. 

“ What are there in it besides Germans? ” Lucy 
asked, smiling to herself at the question. 

“ Bears,” said Michelle, laughing — “ and many 
animals. Herds of pigs, too, like this man’s. 
Many wood-cutters live near the border. And, 
further in, are lodges for huntsmen.” 

‘‘ I’ve always wanted to go there,” said Lucy 
rather sadly. “ I don’t eare so much about it now.” 

“ Oh, it is lovely still,” Michelle objected. “ Per- 
haps when the war is ended the Germans will not 
be so many there.” 

‘‘ I have a pretty little girl,” Paul interrupted 
them. She has hair lil^e yours, Fraulein.” He 
pointed to Lucy’s corn-colored head with one up- 
raised finger. “ She must be four— five years old 
now.” 

Lucy smiled faintly. She tried to imagine this 
man on the battle-field, engaged in a fierce hand- 
to-hand fight for the Allies’ trenches. He was the 
very opposite to Karl’s brutal and aggressive type, 
yet he was driven forward by the same irresistible 
222 


THE PLAN OF THE DEFENSES 


force of blind obedience. Perhaps more than one 
Allied soldier had met death by his hand. 

The vision of the firing-line led her thoughts 
back into another channel, with a quick pang at her 
heart that was half fear and half eager anticipation. 
The coming night Elizabeth would be off duty, and 
the time had come for a second visit to Captain 
Beattie’s prison. The evening promised to be dull 
and rainy. Lucy was thankful at the i3rospect of 
cloudy darkness in place of summer starlight. 
Michelle had crossed the hall to visit another con- 
valescent, and Lucy rose, too, nodding good-bye to 
Paul, who had relapsed once more into silent 
apathy. Her mind was so filled with the evening’s 
expedition, and with her desire to talk to Michelle 
about it, that her thoughts wandered for a moment. 
The American soldier, by whom she had sat down 
to translate a French paper of a month back, re- 
marked shrewdly as he glanced at his little nurse: 

“ Got somethin’ on your mind. Miss? ” He bent 
down to her ear and spoke in a loud whisper. 
‘‘ They haven’t pushed on again? Look here, you 
don’t want to believe all these Fritzes tell you! ” 

“ No, no,” said Lucy, smiling, “ they haven’t got 
on an inch. Major Greyson says he can tell by the 
guns, when he goes to the depot at that end of the 
to^vn. Shall I read you this? ” she asked, looking 
over the old paper again. “ You’ll have to be 
223 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


patient, though, for I can’t translate French very 
fast.” 

At noon she got the moment with Michelle for 
which she had been waiting. She caught her friend 
by the arm as she was returning to the nurses’ room 
to take off her cap and apron. 

“ Michelle, wait a minute! What about to- 
night? ” she asked eagerly. 

Michelle darted a look of angry reproach from 
her blue eyes. She drew Lucy after her in silence 
into the room and over to a window opening on the 
deserted garden. 

“ Oh, Lucy,” she faltered, “ will you not be care- 
ful? ” She caught Lucy’s hands in hers and looked 
entreatingly into her downcast face. “ Do you 
know it is my brother’s life — his life, that is in 
danger if they should suspect me? There are Ger- 
mans all around us here, waiting to learn of any 
help given to their enemies. If they suspect me 
they will watch our house — they will catch Armand 

if he come ” She spoke so low Lucy could 

hardly hear her, but she understood and hung her 
head in sharp remorse and shame. 

“ I’m sorry, Michelle. I’m an idiot,” she said 
humbly. 

Lucy had not Michelle’s long and bitter experi- 
ence to develop her powers of caution and conceal- 
ment. She was not made for a conspirator, and 
224 


THE PLAN OF THE DEFENSES 


her frank and candid nature did not easily get used 
to a life in which walls had ears as truly and as 
perilously as in any old story of intrigue and ad- 
venture. 

“ Can we talk safely here, do you think? ” she 
asked timidly. 

‘‘ Yes, but speak softly,” said Michelle, flashing a 
forgiving smile. “ You wish to tell me the hour 
when I should look for you? ” she asked, once more 
growing grave and earnest. 

“ Yes. We will be there as near to nine o’clock 
as possible. Of course we can’t be sure.” 

“ Come to the door by the garden path — you 
know? I will have ready all that we can spare. 
It is little.” 

“ Oh, he’ll be glad to get it. I can’t bring much 
from here,” said Lucy. She had nothing to give 
but a part of her own scanty food, but remembering 
the young Englishman, half -starved in his dismal 
captivity, how trifling her sacrifice seemed. 

“ I will watch for you. Oh, Lucy, I hope all 
goes well ! ” Michelle’s eyes were troubled as she 
spoke, but Lucy, feeling courageous at that mo- 
ment, smiled back at her, saying: 

“ Don’t worry. The night will be too dark for 
any one to see us. Look, there’s Clemence.” 

The old Frenchwoman, returning from the food- 
depot with her basket, was standing outside the 
225 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


garden gate, glancing doubtfully past the sentry 
toward the hospital window. Michelle bade Lucy 
a hasty good-bye and, drawing her pass from the 
pocket of her dress, made for the door into the 
garden. 

Elizabeth had taken on herself the task of setting 
the nurses’ table and bringing in their food, so as 
to watch over Lucy and see that she had enough to 
eat. It was lunch-time now, and Lucy left the 
window to help in carrying in the meagre supplies. 
A platter of baked potatoes, a pot of coffee and two 
slices apiece of coarse black bread, wai; what the 
nurses sat down to after a hard morning’s work; 
but they were hungry enough to find it good. 
Lucy was, too, but curbing her appetite, she man- 
aged in the course of the meal to slip her two 
potatoes and a slice of bread into her apron pocket 
unnoticed. It was little enough, she felt, to take 
a hungry man, but the dairy supplies were strictly 
reserved for the wounded, and she saw no chance 
of getting to Mere Breton’s cottage that day. She 
could only hope, with Michelle’s help, to eke out a 
tolerable meal. 

She felt the injustice of not confiding in her faith- 
ful companion the real need for their visit to the 
prison. But she had promised Michelle not to re- 
veal a word of her brother’s possible coming to any 
one but Captain Beattie. 

226 


THE PLAN OF THE DEFENSES 


As on the night of their first visit, Lucy made a 
pretense of going early to bed. She had no diffi- 
culty in leaving the empty house unobserved, and 
ten o’clock found her and Elizabeth on their way 
to the eastern edge of the town. The rain still fell 
and the wind blew in gusts around the street cor- 
ners, and, sweeping through the shell-holes in the 
walls, brought down loose bricks which fell with a 
sodden crash. Lucy and Elizabeth had coats 
wrapped closely about them, but in a few moments 
they were drenched by the warm pelting downpour. 
Their feet stumbled among loose stones and 
splashed into puddles. Lucy stared helplessly 
ahead into the darkness, trusting entirely to Eliza- 
beth for guidance. 

In half an hour, not having met even a sentry, 
they stole up the garden path to the side door of the 
de la Tours’ house, and Michelle instantly admitted 
them. 

‘‘ Oh, poor things! But you are wet like from 
the river! Sit down, Lucy, ma pauvre amie. Stay 
one moment by the kitchen fire,” she exclaimed at 
sight of the soaked and bedraggled visitors. 

“ Oh, no, we can’t wait,” said Lucy, pushing her 
wet hair from her face, eager to get on and accom- 
plish her purpose before her courage failed. It’s 
only a warm rain, anyhow — I rather like it.” 

‘‘ Let me go with you? ” begged Michelle, bring- 
227 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


ing out a little basket she had got ready and looking 
entreatingly at Lucy. “Maman has gone to bed. 
She will not know to be afraid for me. I do not 
want that you should have all the danger.” 

“No, no, Mademoiselle!” Elizabeth hastily in- 
terposed. “Enough it is that I fear for Miss Lucy. 
You can nothing do to help, and much better you 
do not go.” 

“ She’s right, Michelle. There’s nothing you 
could do. I’m going to bring the paper he gives 
me here to-morrow so that if — so it will be safe.” 
She had almost blurted out Captain de la Tour’s 
name. When Elizabeth was risking so much to 
help them, it seemed absurd to Lucy that Michelle 
should still suspect her. A startled look sprang 
into the French girl’s eyes, but Lucy gave her a 
reassuring smile to show that she had not forgotten 
her promise, and cautiously opened the door. 
“ Good-bye, Michelle,” she whispered. 

In another moment they were out in the rain 
again, with the little basket of food carefully pro- 
tected beneath Elizabeth’s shawl. It was but half 
a mile further to the prison and after fifteen min- 
utes’ walk through the empty streets, Lucy stood 
once more before the barred windows in the wall. 
The drip, drip of the rain against the stone was the 
only sound except the occasional boom of a cannbn 
from the watchful German lines. Elizabeth had 
228 


THE PLAN OF THE DEFENSES 


taken up her post commanding the window of the 
guard-room, but to-night a curtain was drawn to 
shut out the rain, and all was silent inside. Even 
German guards relax their vigilance with so little 
to fear as in deserted and ruined Chateau-Plessis. 
They loiew their prisoners were securely barred and 
bolted in. 

Lucy grasped the wet iron and pulled herself up 
a step to the window’s level, softly calling the young 
officer’s name. No sound came back but the steady 
drip of the rain which fell upon her upturned face. 

“ Captain Beattie! ” she said again, imploringly. 

Some one stirred on a rustling straw bed and 
footsteps sounded on the stone floor. Then the 
Englishman’s voice from just inside the bars asked 
uncertainly, “ Is that you, Lucy Gordon? ” 

Then with a little more of its natural energy the 
voice out of the darkness added, “ But you poor 
child, what a night to be out! Why did you come 
again? ” 

“ I told you I would,” said Lucy, peering through 
the bars in a vain attempt to see beyond them. 
“ This sort of night is the safest to come. The rain 
doesn’t hurt me. I have something for you. Cap- 
tain Beattie. I can’t get the basket through the 
bars. Will you hold out your hands? ” 

“ You’ve brought me some grub, you little friend 
in need!” exclaimed the prisoner with a sudden 
229 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


shake in his low voice. “ Can you honestly spare 
it? I bet you can’t.” 

“ Oh, yes indeed; I have plenty. Here, I’ll put 
the things into your hands. They are only two 
baked potatoes, some bread and eggs and a little 
chocolate. Be careful — all right, I see now where 
your hand is.” 

“ I hate to be a funker, but I’m horribly hungry,” 
admitted the young officer, as his careful hands 
drew in the contents of the little basket. “ They 
give us the most beastly food. I’m all right, 
though — I get along. But it’s jolly to have a 
friend like you.” 

The attempt at cheerfulness in his sad voice 
struck at Lucy’s heart. “ I’ll come often. Captain 
Beattie. I’ll bring you all I can,” she promised 
eagerly. 

“ No you won’t, Lucy. You mustn’t. You 
don’t mind if I call you Lucy? I’ll tell you why 
I like to. I have a little sister named Lucy — at 
least she was a kid like you before the war, when 
we used to be together. Now she’s eighteen, and 
learning to be a nurse ; but I always think of her as 
a little girl.” 

“ Of course you may call me that. I’m so glad 
if I can cheer you up the least bit. Didn’t I tell 
you that my brother Bob was in a German prison? ” 

“ Yes. See here,” said Captain Beattie suddenly, 
230 


THE PLAN OF THE DEFENSES 


“ how about that brother of yours? I don’t sup- 
pose he’s been able to pull off that stunt again? ” 

“ No, but I want the plan of the defenses. Bob 
may not come again, nor I get word to him, but I’ve 
found another way.” She stopped for a second, 
looking fearfully back into the rainy darlmess, then 
turned once more to the window and told him of the 
chance of Armand de la Tour’s coming. 

When she had finished her listener was silent for 
a moment, then he said slowly, “ It’s pretty doubt- 
ful that he will get into the town again. Still, 
those French spies have incredible skill and daring. 
Anyway, it’s a chance, and I’ll give you the paper. 
I have it all ready and hidden in the straw of my 
bed.” 

He went further back into the room and after a 
minute returned to the window. “ Can you put it 
where it will keep dry, Lucy? It’s only drawn on 
a scrap of the paper they gave me to write home 
with.” 

“ Oh, yes. I’ll keep it dry,” Lucy promised, her 
heart beating high with hope as she took the folded 
slip from the young officer’s hand. 

“ I don’t like to give it to you,” he said doubt- 
fully. “ It’s beastly bringing you into danger. 
I’ve camouflaged it pretty well. You’ll see that it 
looks like a little sketch of German soldiers chang- 
ing guard, here in the road. The crooked road I’ve 
231 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 

shaped like the ridge at Argenton, and each group 
of men stands for a battery. That’s all you need 
tell the Frenchman. Of course it isn’t complete, 
for I couldn’t learn everything, but it’s enough to 
give our airmen and gunners the exact range. Oh, 
what luck, if you could really contrive to get it 
over! I can’t help hoping, though it may be silly. 
You’ve managed to do so much already under the 
Boches’ very noses.” 

“ I can’t make Captain de la Tour come,” said 
Lucy wistfully. “ But if he does I’ll surely get 
this to him.” 

“ Now go, Lucy. I can’t bear to have you out 
there in the rain, and I don’t feel so sure of their 
not seeing you. It’s so jolly to have you to talk 
to, I’m selfish and hate to let you go.” 

“ I’m coming again,” said Lucy, smiling with 
pleasure at his words and at the happy knowledge 
of success in this much of her plan as, dripping wet, 
she clung with aching fingers to the rusty bars, 
“ What do you do all day. Captain Beattie? How 
I wish I could make things better for you.” 

“ I don’t do anything. I sit, and walk up and 
down and then sit again, and wonder by the hour 
when we’ll begin to push the Germans back. Then 
I look at these bars and convince myself I can’t 
get out, and end by longing for the next meal — if 
you could call it a meal. I’ve tried tapping on the 
232 


THE PLAN OF THE DEFENSES 


Avail to the soldiers next to me, but either they have 
gone or the stone is too thick. They don’t answer.” 

At this dismal picture Lucy sighed. She knew 
hoAV such confinement had tried Bob’s active spirit 
and overcome his power to resist sickness when it 
came. She was about to offer some words of feeble 
encouragement when a muffled step around the 
corner of the building made her hold her breath in 
terror. The next moment she dropped to the 
ground and crouched on the wet earth in the shadow 
of the wall. A German soldier came sauntering 
by, looking up at the barred windows from under 
his rubber hood. He seemed to have no particular 
duty here, for he walked along humming to him- 
self, as though on his way to bed. Before he passed 
the window beneath which Lucy crouched trem- 
bling, another figure came up behind him, splash- 
ing with heavy boots through the muddy pools. 

“ Is that you, Franz? ” asked a guttural Ger- 
man voice. 

“ Yes,” responded the man in front, stopping to 
wait. “ You off guard, too? ” 

“ For three hours — not time enough to sleep,” 
grumbled the first speaker. “Why don’t they send 
enough men to garrison the place, if these empty 
streets must be watched like treasure-chests? ” 

“ Because the front line needs more watching 
still,” said the first man, pausing to cover his rifle 

233 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


carefully with his rubber cape. “ Those Amer- 
ican devil-dogs are getting nasty. You know the 
little hill with the old Schloss on it? There’s our 
weak point, if you ask me. How could we hold the 
pond and swamp below when they won’t spare us 
artillery for the hill? I’ve been on guard there to- 
night, and I tell you we couldn’t. I know that 
much without wearing shoulder straps.” 

“You seem to know a lot,” remarked the other 
man, still bad-humoredly. “ Suppose you tell me 
where we are to get supper to-night.” 

They passed on out of hearing, and Lucy, 
breathing fast with terror, sprang up from the 
ground. “ Good-bye! ” she whispered to the dark- 
ness of the window, and fled swiftly but with infinite 
caution through the mud and water of the road, 
toward the place where Elizabeth waited. 

The talk she had just heard meant little at first, 
when her mind was filled with the wild thought of 
flight. But the gruff words, spoken in that lan- 
guage she had learned to hate, stuck in her memory 
as vividly as did the two disconsolate figures stand- 
ing in the rain before her hiding-place. 


234 


CHAPTER XI 


A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 

“ It looks like a regular workshop. Oh, Michelle, 
I’m so glad you thought of it!” exclaimed Lucy, 
looking around the hall with admiring eyes. Al- 
most every convalescent soldier had a lump of clay 
or some wdllow splits in his fingers, of which he was 
trying to fashion something pretty or useful, gen- 
erally without much success. A few of the poilus 
and Germans were expert basket weavers, and one 
potter was among them. The rest knew enough to 
get along with help. As for the Americans, they 
caused more amusement than had been heard among 
the men in a long time. Not one of them could 
weave the willow splits into a symmetrical shape, 
and only one succeeded in making of the clay any- 
thing more than a dumpy jug. This was a little 
red-headed westerner, who formed his lump into a 
dozen animals in as many minutes, to the great in- 
terest of the Frenchmen about him, ending the ex- 
hibition with a figure of a cowboy on horseback, 
waving a lasso made of a willow sliver. 

It was not the quality of the work that made the 

235 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


two girls proud and delighted at the result of their 
hard labor. It was the atmosphere of interested 
occupation and rivalry, so different from the listless 
melancholy that takes possession of a roomful of 
idle men. The work was trifling and almost use- 
less, but it was far better than nothing, and Lucy 
felt well repaid for her hot walks and the heavy 
loads carried in her aching arms. 

It was two days since her visit to the prison, and 
she had spent the intervals from work in vain at- 
tempts to scheme out a means of getting her 
precious paper to the Allied lines. One idea she 
communicated to Michelle, rather expecting to be 
laughed at. 

“ Do you think we could tame one of the pigeons 
that fly around the hospital roof, Michelle? It 
could take the message so easily.” 

“ But this is their home,” Michelle objected. 
“ You must have a bird who longs to return across 
the lines — who is a stranger here. There were 
many like that guarded here last month by the 
French etat-major, I do not know where they are 
now.” 

“ What an easy way that would be, and what a 
safe one,” Lucy thought this morning as she went 
back and forth among the convalescents, giving 
encouragement since she could not give advice, and 
seeing that each man had material to work with. 

236 


A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 


“ Oh, how too bad we must give so much to the 
Bodies ! ” whispered Michelle, as Lucy picked up 
a handful of splits for Paul Schwartz to finish his 
neat basket. 

“ But we have to,” said Lucy, resignedly. It 
was the sight of the German soldiers working away 
at the materials furnished by the hard efforts of the 
two little aides which had caused the German sur- 
geon in eharge to give Lucy a brisk nod of approval 
in passing. She felt more angry than gratified 
at this condescending reward for her trouble, but 
she Imew his good will was necessary if they were 
to continue helping the French and Americans. 

“ I cannot stay long with you this afternoon,” 
said Michelle a few minutes later, when all the 
patients were again supplied with occupation. 
“ Poor Maman does not get up to-day. She has a 
bad cold from coming in the rain from the hospital.” 

‘‘ I’m so sorry, Michelle. Could I do anything 
to help? I suppose the French doctors can give 
you what she needs? ” 

“ Yes. But one thing I would like to ask of 
you. I am not sure if you can do it.” The French 
girl gave her friend an appealing look as she said, 
with a more natural childishness than she had 
shown Lucy before, “ I am very lonely while 
Maman is ill. If you could come and pass the 
night with me — I would be grateful.” 

237 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“To-night, Michelle? Of course I will! I 
know how I can manage it. Ill go home with 
Elizabeth — no one objects to that — and she can 
leave me at your house. It will be late, though. 
She can’t leave here before ten.” 

“ Oh, how glad I shall be of your company!” 
Jlichelle exclaimed, her face instantly brightening. 
Then her lip curved to a mocking smile as she 
added, “ What could we do without that chere 
Boclie, Elizabeth? ” 

“ Laugh at her all you like,” said Lucy, unruffled. 
“ I know her better than you.” 

“ I do not laugh at her,” INIichelle protested. 
“ But to be friend with her seems strange. Never 
I thought to trust in one of that country again.” 

“ Oh, Michelle, that’s not quite fair,” Lucy be- 
gan, but her arguments died away on her lips. She 
had no right to lecture Michelle, who had seen the 
worst and would be more than human if the name of 
German were not hateful to her. “ You’ll know 
before long that Elizabeth can be trusted,” she con- 
tented herself with saying. 

“ Oh, yes, sans doute/^ answered Michelle, un- 
convinced, but anxious to make amends for her 
frankness. “ You will come to-night then, Lucy? 
I will wait for you.” 

The eagerness in her eyes made Lucy respond 
quickly, “ I certainly will. I may be late, but that 
238 


A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 


can’t be helped. I’m never sure when Elizabeth 
can get off.” 

“ Then au revoh'y and thank you/' smiled 
Michelle, stopping on her way down the hall to 
carry a handful of wet clay to the American cow- 
boy artist. He in turn presented her with a clay 
buffalo, quite lifelike with its lowered head and 
threatening horns. “ Only mind you don’t break 
off the horns,” he cautioned. 

“ I’d ’a’ given that little Mamzel a fair treat if 
I hadn’t been skeered to try it,” he confided to 
Lucy, after Michelle’s departure. “ I wanted to 
make her a little Boche soldier — square head, pig 
eyes and all — with one of our boys getting a 
good swipe at him with a bayonet. I’ll do it 
yet.” 

“ Hush ! ” said Lucy, laughing, but glancing ap- 
prehensively around. “ You mustn’t talk about 
Boches so loud, Tyler.” 

At the end of another hour she went off duty in 
the hall to help Elizabeth bring in the nurses’ 
supper. At the first opportunity she explained the 
promise made Michelle. 

“ You’ll take me with you, won’t you, Eliza- 
beth? ” she asked anxiously. 

“ Oh, yes, Miss Lucy, I think so. In the morn- 
ing I stop to bring you back after I get the basket 
full from the little farm. Only,” Elizabeth added, 

239 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


looking earnestly into Lucy’s face, “ promise me 
you don’t by yourself to the old prison go.” 

“ I promise — if you’ll take me there soon again,” 
said Lucy, thinking sadly that the little stock of 
provisions she had left Captain Beattie must be al- 
ready gone. “ I hope you can leave early, Eliza- 
beth,” she said, returning to the evening’s plan. 
“ If you can’t Miss Pearse will make such a 
fuss.” 

She was happy at the chance of doing Michelle a 
service, as well as at the prospect of seeing her 
friend for longer than a hurried hour. Elizabeth 
was more sympathetic this time, too, than when 
Lucy had proposed the other expedition. Eliza- 
beth did not encourage patriotism or daring on 
Lucy’s part, and, if she had had her way, would 
have kept her in safe seclusion. 

She did her best to get through her long day’s 
work early, and it was not yet ten o’clock when she 
left Lucy at the side door of Michelle’s house. 
Luey was instantly admitted, and her hostess gave 
her a warm welcome. 

“ I thought perhaps you do not come, and I feel 
so sorry,” said Michelle, smiling with pleasure as 
she took Lucy’s cape from her shoulders. “ Maman 
is asleep, and Clemence working in the kitchen, be- 
cause she stayed with Maman to-day while I was at 
the hospital. You know we give the breakfast 
240 


A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 


every morning to the German sentinel on this 
street.” 

“ You do! ” cried Lucy, indignantly. 

“ Yes, we must. Come and sit here by the 
candle,” said Michelle, leading the way into the 
little parlor, “ and show me what gave you the 
English capitaine. You said that I should see it.” 

“ Of course. I’m going to leave it here with 
you, anyway. It’s the first chance I’ve had.” 

Michelle glanced keenly toward the windows, 
across which calico curtains were drawn, as Lucy 
raised the hem of her dress and, ripping a few 
stitches, drew out a folded slip of paper. The two 
girls sat down at the table on which the flickering 
candle burned, and Lucy spread the paper out 
before them. 

“ I’ve hardly done more than peek at it myself,” 
she remarked. “ You’ve made me so cautious, 
Michelle, I don’t do anything without stopping to 
think if it is safe.” 

“ I am glad of that,” said Michelle, soberly. “ It 
is better you should be too careful than to forget 
once that the Boches are always listening. Oh, see; 
he has drawn it like a picture, that the danger may 
not be so great for you.” 

Lucy remembered the Englishman’s brief ex- 
planation as she bent over the little sketch, and 
repeated it to Michelle. The drawing was cleverly 
241 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


but roughly made with quick strokes of the pen, 
and, to her eye at least, would have suggested noth- 
ing suspicious. Beneath it were scrawled the 
words, “ Changing the Guard.” The six groups of 
German soldiers, leaning lazily on their guns as 
they awaited their orders to relieve the various out- 
posts, might have been seen any day from Captain 
Beattie’s x^rison window. As for the curving line 
of the road as he had drawn it, only an observing 
eye would notice that the road behind the prison 
had really far less width and fewer windings. The 
flower-beds sketched in beyond completed the zig- 
zag outline. Lucy saw it all now, with a rush of 
comprehension. The carefull}^ measured lines be- 
hind the lounging figures of the guard were the 
bastions of the great fortified ridge at Argenton. 
The soldiers were the hidden batteries whose loca- 
tions had been the object of such deadly and in- 
effectual search. 

“ Oh, Michelle,” she sighed, filled with eager and 
helpless longing, “ I’d do anything — anything — to 
get this over to our lines.” 

“And I, too,” exclaimed the French girl with 
flashing eyes. “ But what can we do? We can 
only wait.” 

Lucy frowned in bitter rebellion as she folded 
the paper once more and slipped it carefully into 
her pocket. 

242 


A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 


“ I must return to Maman,” said Michelle, pick- 
ing up the candle. “ Perhaps she is awake again.” 

Lucy followed her friend up the narrow, dingy 
stairs, and, as she did so, her exas^Deration began to 
give place to a pleasanter and more helpful feeling. 
She looked forward to sj)ending the night in the 
de la Tours’ little house. Though they were in 
enemy hands this house still kept some of the ele- 
ments of home. Its neat, simple interior, and the 
united affection of the three who made up the 
family — for Clemence was one of them by virtue 
of hardships long shared in common — meant much 
to Lucy after her days in the crowded hospital and 
nights in the half-furnished house across the street. 

Madame de la Tour was lying awake, but she de- 
clared that her sleep had made her feel much 
better. “ There is no need to remain up for me, 
mcs enfants/^ she said decidedly. ‘‘ But I am glad 
you came, ma 'petite f" she added, taking Lucy af- 
fectionately by the hand. “ My Michelle is very 
happy to have your company.” 

“ I wanted to come. It’s lovely to be in a real 
house — in somebody’s home again,” said Lucy 
warmly, her eyes filled with sympatliy and pity as 
she looked at the fragile little figure in the bed — an 
old French peasrant bed, with clumsy wooden side 
boards. 

“ Then try to have a good night’s sleep,” urged 

243 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Madame de la Tour, fixing her bright eyes on 
Lucy’s face. “ Your cheeks are grown thinner 
than I like to see them.” 

Lucy was glad to go to bed in these surroundings 
and made no objection when Michelle led the way 
with a candle to the little chamber next her own. 
Old Clemence slept just now on a sofa by her mis- 
tress’s side. Already, down below, they could hear 
her noisily bolting doors and doing her best to secure 
the broken windows by fastening the shutters. The 
two girls talked a while together, for their sleepi- 
ness was not quite proof against the many things 
each wanted to hear about the other. But presently 
Michelle stole out to see that her mother wanted 
nothing, and coming back took up Lucy’s candle 
and wished her good-night. 

“ I must wake you very early in the morning, 
you know. How good it will be to have you here 
for breakfast,” she said with friendly satisfaction 
as she went away. 

For the first time in many nights Lucy slept 
deep and dreamlessly as though she were safe at 
home again. She could not believe the night was 
over when, at the first peep of dawn, she woke to 
find Michelle standing at her bedside, her pretty 
black hair tumbled about her shoulders and her 
eyes still heavy with sleep. 

“ I am very Sony I must call you from the bed 
244 


A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 


so early/’ she apologized. “ But I must help 
Clemence to-day, before I go to the hospital. It is 
for that we take the breakfast as soon as it grows 
light.” 

“All right,” said Lucy, yawning and stretching 
herself awake before she added, “ I have to be ready 
early, anyway, for Elizabeth will stop for me at 
seven o’clock. I’ll help you, too, Michelle. What 
do you have to do? ” 

“ Not so much,” Michelle responded, sitting 
down for a moment at the foot of Lucy’s bed to 
comb her hair free from its curling tangles. “ I 
make a little coffee for Maman, while Clemence is 
preparing breakfast for the sentinel. He eats well, 
ma foi! ” 

“ Oh, to think of having to feed him! ” exclaimed 
Lucy, tossing about in her indignation. “ Some- 
times when I first wake in the morning I can’t be- 
lieve we really are in the German lines. It seems 
too awful to be true.” 

“ It is much better now than when the Boches 
make their first capture of the toAvn,” said Michelle, 
the brightness dying out of her face with the words. 
“ Then there were many more here — a regiment. 
They were proud with victory and cared for no one’s 
prayers. They went into the houses, stealing all 
they found. Maman and I for two days hid in the 
hospital. When the officers made again a little 

245 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


order in the town we returned to poor Clemence — 
for she would not leave the house, rather, she tell us, 
she will stay and fight the Boches who enter. But 
for all her scolding they take away the little food 
we have, and Maman and I must go and beg for 
bread from the sergeant at the Commissariat, For 
wood, also, we must beg, for the soldiers take all we 
have, and it was February — very cold — with snow 
upon the ground.” 

As ]\Iichelle spoke her quiet voice became filled 
with trembling indignation. She let fall her hair 
upon her shoulders and pressed her hands together, 
while her blue eyes shone with the bitter resentment 
reawakened. She had told Lucy but a tenth part 
of the suffering and humiliation of those days 
which, far from being safely past, might be repeated 
at any moment. Lucy’s indignant sympathy was 
for an instant too strong for words, and the next 
Michelle had regained her self-control. Rising 
from the bed she exclaimed with a kind of scornful 
impatience at herself : 

“It is no good to think of those bad times! 
Enough that is bad we have still with us.” She 
turned to smile faintly back at Lucy as she said 
more cheerfully, “ We must have a pleasant break- 
fast together, so you will like to come and give me 
your company again.” 

Lucy dressed very thoughtfully, her mind filled 
246 


A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 


with the glimpse Michelle had given her of that ter- 
rible past which had been even harder to endure 
than the uncertain present. Now Lucy better un- 
derstood the look that had arrested her attention at 
first sight of Michelle’s face. Lucy had thought 
that she herself was bearing much, and with pass- 
able courage. But how much smaller her trials 
seemed when compared with Michelle’s long years 
of suffering and anxiety, borne with no other com- 
panion than her frail little mother. 

When she finished dressing and ran down-stairs 
Michelle was already in the dining-room, engaged 
in setting the table with a breakfast of hot pea soup 
and two slices of coarse black bread. Lucy knew 
it was the best the house afforded, and she felt 
reluctant to eat of the precious little store. But 
evidently her company was worth far more to 
Michelle than a few mouthfuls of food. The 
French girl had cheered up from her melancholy, 
and greeting Lucy with a bright smile, made place 
for her at the bare wooden table. 

“ Oh, Lucy,” she exclaimed, “ if only you had 
come to see me four years ago, what a nice break- 
fast I should have given you! ” This was the first 
reference Michelle had ever made to her beautiful 
old home which was now a ruin. “ But perhaps,” 
she added thoughtfully, “you never would have 
come to France without this war.” 

247 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ But after the war I’ll come again, Michelle,” 
said Lucy eagerly. “ I don’t think a friendship) 
begun like ours can ever be forgotten. France and 
America will never seem so far apart as they did. 
We won’t think of France any more as a foreign 
country.” 

She looked across the table at her friend for 
response to her sincere enthusiasm, for Michelle 
had fallen suddenly silent. Lucj^' followed her eyes 
in astonishment, to where they were fixed on the 
little door which led from the back of the room 
down to the cellar. As she looked closely at it, 
trying to discover the cause of Michelle’s motion- 
less attention, she saw that it was not quite shut. 
Before she had time to think further, she saw the 
door pushed open, and a German soldier entered the 
room. 

The spoon in Lucy’s hand dropped on the table. 
A bewildered fear took possession of her. The 
soldier was a tall, stalwart blond, with dusty and 
mud-stained uniform, as though fresh from active 
duty. As he stood there against the door he 
had closed behind him he panted a little, and his 
face, seen in the shadowy light, though young, 
looked haggard and lined with weariness. This 
picture formed itself in an instant on her mind. 
The next she heard a trembling cry from 
Michelle’s lips. The soldier pushed off his little 
248 


A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 


round cap and held out his arms. “ Michelle! ” he 
said. 

“Armand!” Michelle answered, in a voice that 
was half a sob. With one bound she had crossed 
the floor and thrown her arms about the soldier’s 
neck, while over his tired face broke a smile as sweet 
and radiant as her own. “ Oh, Armand, cheri, why 
did you come? Mon Dieu, why did you come!” 
was all she could say in the first moment of her joy 
and terror. 

“ I had to come, to learn that you were safe,” he 
said unsteadily. 

Lucy’s heart had given one leap, and now it be- 
gan racing furiously, as her paralyzing fright 
changed to different emotions. Fear for Michelle’s 
brother, in the deadly peril in which he had placed 
himself, and a thrill of admiration at his daring ex- 
ploit, were mingled with the wild delight of know- 
ing that Captain Beattie’s paper was safely in her 
pocket ready to be confided to the Frenchman’s 
keeping. 

While these thoughts chased each other through 
her mind, Michelle turned from her brother, with 
blue eyes shining in her white, frightened face, 
to say tremblingly in English, “ Oh, Lucy, it is 
Armand! My friend, cher Armand, Mademoiselle 
Lucy Gordon, who knows all we hope and fear. A 
brother she has, too, with the Americans.” 

249 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Captain de la Tour stretched a friendly hand to 
Lucy, with a courteous bow which seemed strange 
to her from a man in German uniform. He spoke 
English without INIichelle’s difficulty. 

“ Gordon? Is your brother Lieutenant Gordon, 
the aviator? Then, Mademoiselle, we are not 
strangers. I have brought him news of how things 
are in Chateau-Plessis. For once since the capture 
I crossed the lines, but could not manage to reach 
this house.” 

“We have something to give you — something 
that will help the Allies,” stammered Lucy, almost 
choking over the words in her realization of success 
at last in sight. 

“ Truly? But first of all I must see Maman. 
She is up-stairs, Michelle? Ill, you say? In bed? ” 
He ran to the stairs, while Michelle, half mad with 
anxiety, called Clemence from the kitchen and in a 
few hasty words bade her watch the street and the 
entrance to the garden. 

“ I’ll watch from the other side,” Lucy offered, 
but Michelle objected: 

“ You can see better from above. All should be 
well, and if not, we have no way to forbid that they 
come in. He will stay only a few minutes. The 
guard is not changed before two hours more, so 
not till then will the sentinel come for breakfast. 
If only it did not grow light so soon! ” 

250 


A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 


Up-stairs, Armand was kneeling by his mother’s 
bed, questioning her about her welfare with feverish 
eagerness. 

“ I had no peaee not knowing that you were 
safe,” he said in answer to his mother’s reproaehes, 
made in an agony of fear. “ How could you think 
I would not come? ” 

Lucy stood by the front window breathing fast, 
her face flushed and burning in the cool morning 
air. Outside, the sentry was lazily pacing. He 
passed the house perhaps once in fifteen minutes, 
but this time he had turned toward it with a curious 
glance that set Lucy in a frenzy of uncertainty. 
He had not the look of suspecting that an enemy 
spy was in the neighborhood, but the house seemed 
to interest him. Perhaps, Lucy thought, with a 
rush of hope as he passed on, he was only longing 
for the hour of relief and the sausages and potatoes 
awaiting him. 

She turned back to the room, where Armand was 
telling of his entrance into the town, interrupted by 
a hundred questions from his mother and Michelle. 
There were such endless things to be asked and 
answered on both sides, and Lucy herself would 
have given much for a few words with him. She 
was listening to his rapid talk, following the French 
with an effort, when a loud knock sounding on the 
front door echoed through the house. 

251 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Captain de la Tour sprang to his feet, his body 
alert and his blue eyes flashing. Michelle, seizing 
his hand, with ashy cheeks and quivering lips, en- 
treated him, “ Hide, Armand! Come quickly — in 
my room! ” 

The young Frenchman gave a quick shake of the 
head. “ If they suspect me all concealment is use- 
less. You forget I am well disguised. Do as I 
say and nothing more. Go down, Michelle, and do 
not deny a German soldier is here.” 

He listened intently as Michelle silently obeyed 
him. His mother, white and motionless, waited 
likewise for signs of what was taking place below. 
Clemence had admitted some one, and now they 
heard her voice protesting, and a man’s voice, short 
and surly, in reply. Then Michelle interposed, 
calm and conciliating. Steps crossed the floor of 
the hall toward the stairway. There was no time 
for any plan, Lucy thought wildly. But in the 
moment that Clemence preceded the intruder up 
the stairs. Captain de la Tour had drawn from his 
gray tunic a^iote-book and pencil, and, standing by 
his mother’s bedside, began jotting down notes 
with a steady hand. Clemence, red-faced and terri- 
fied, ran into the room, her hands wound frenziedly 
about her apron. After her came the German 
sentry, a frown on his heavy face and curiosity 
lighting up his eyes. At sight of the occupants of 
252 



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A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 


the room he made the suggestion of a bow, but he 
offered no apology for his intrusion as, fingering 
his grm, he stared at Armand’s tall, commanding 
figure. 

‘‘ Hello, mate,” said Armand in German, looking 
quietly ux) from his note-book, as Michelle followed 
the soldier into the room. 

Lucy could not restrain a gasp of amazement at 
the scene before her. She knew Michelle’s won- 
derful self-control, and did not so much marvel at 
her hastily assumed look of angry annoyance, un- 
mixed with the least sign of her mortal anxiety. 
But to see delicate little Madame de la Tour lying 
back on her pillows with an expression of cold ex- 
asperation, her eyes, glancing from Armand to the 
sentry, saying plainly that one German soldier had 
been quite enough without another forcing himself 
upon her, was such a wonderful change from her 
helpless terror of a moment past that Lucy could 
hardly believe her eyes. Even the German sentry 
looked uncomfortable before the little French lady’s 
calm and silent dignity. He shuffled his feet awk- 
wardly as he answered, with a nod at Armand: 

“Hello! You a stranger? What’s your busi- 
ness here? ” 

“ Because I’m a stranger to you doesn’t mean 
I’m one to the whole town,” returned Armand, with 
a twitch at the corner of his mouth, as though hiding 

253 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


a smile at his own wit. Then, in a more friendly 
tone, he added, “ However, I’ve no objeetion to 
telling you my business. I’m detailed from the 
third regiment uj) the line to help here in the supply 
depot. They’re making a new list of the popula- 
tion. The food’s not holding out.” 

“ I know that well enough,” grumbled the sentry, 
his inquisitive look changing to one of gloomy dis- 
satisfaction. “ Much good you can do about it.” 

“ Now suppose you tell me what you are doing 
here? ” suggested Armand, with a return of his 
faintly mocking tone. 

The sentry leaned on his gun a little sheepishly 
as he answered, “ I’m supposed to keep an eye on 
who goes in and out along this street.” He did not 
care to confess the real motive for his precipitate 
entrance. Seeing a fellow soldier enter the garden 
path and disappear in the shrubbery, he had been 
seized with a greedy suspicion that the newcomer 
had designs on his breakfast. A chance shortening 
of his usual beat had given him this glimpse of 
Armand, and he had shortened it once more to enter 
the house after Lucy had watched him pass. 

To change the subject he inquired amicably, 
“ The third, did you say you belonged to? That’s 
in the trenches now, isn’t it? How did you get 
off? ” 

‘‘ Two days only,” said Armand, without enthusi- 

254 


A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 


asm. “ I’m on sick leave. Light work, they call 
this.” He closed his note-book and sliiDped it back 
inside his tunic. 

“ Well, are you ready to go? ” asked the sentry, 
restored to good humor. “ I’d like some company 
as far as the end of my beat. I suppose you’re not 
going nearer the meadows than this? There’s no 
one living there.”. 

“ No, I’m starting back now,” said Armand, 
He turned toward the bed where Madame de la 
Tour lay, and giving a slight, stiff bow murmured, 
“ Good-morning, ladies.” 

The sentry, moved by force of example, made a 
faint boAv likewise, and followed his companion to 
the stairs. Motionless and silent, Armand’s mother 
and sister watched him go. They heard him en- 
gaged in friendlj^ conversation with the German in 
the hall below, where Armand paused to get his cap 
from the dining-room. The next minute the door 
slammed behind the sentiy’s heavy hand and their 
footsteps sounded on the stone flags outside. 

Lucy and Michelle with one accord rushed to the 
window. Armand and the sentry were walking 
slowly down the street. With another few steps 
a projecting wall hid them from sight. Michelle 
was shaking from head to foot, and the hand that 
touched Lucy’s was icy cold. But she overcame 
herself enough to return with Clemence to her 

255 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


mother’s side and give poor Madame de la Tour 
the comfort of her presence at that moment. Lucy 
had not their awful anguish of fear to endure. It 
was not her brother who walked the streets of 
Chateau-Plessis in imminent danger of recognition 
and certain death. But she was almost as wretched 
as they in the bitterness of her disappointment. 
She felt an unreasoning confidence that Captain 
de la Tour would manage to reach the Allied lines 
in safety. His nerve and coolness were powerful 
weapons among the dull-witted German soldiery. 
But he would return without the slip of paper which 
she had dared so much to obtain, and which might 
have brought safety and freedom to them all. 

“ Twice I’ve failed,” she thought, as with choking 
throat and eyes blurred with tears she sank miser- 
ably down on the little window-seat. “ Oh, it 
seems as though any one could have done better 
than I!” 

Before the occupants of the room had collected 
their stunned and bewildered thoughts, a second 
knock sounded on the front door, this time a 
gentler one. 

“ That’s Elizabeth,” exclaimed Lucy, starting to 
her feet, and winking the tears from her eyes. At 
the same moment an idea occurred to her at sight 
of Michelle’s white face, and Madame de la Tour’s 
pitiful struggle for hope and courage. “ Michelle, 
256 


A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 


I’ll ask Elizabeth to find out about your brother. 
To learn where he goes and if he gets safely away. 
She can go among the soldiers and ask them any 
questions without being suspected.” 

“ No, no! I beg you! ” cried Michelle, suddenly 
restored to speech and movement. “ Never could 
I trust her with Armand’s secret! ” Her blue eyes 
had lighted up with that never-forgotten dread and 
terror of every German. 

Lucy opened her lips to say frankly that her 
doubts were absurd, and that now, if ever, was a 
time when Elizabeth could be of service and could 
relieve the agony of Madame de la Tour’s mind. 
But unwilling to argue the subject before Michelle’s 
mother, she drew her friend toward the stairway 
instead, saying, “ Come down with me while I let 
Elizabeth in. I want to speak to you.” 

Michelle agreed, but as they descended the stairs 
she forestalled Lucy by repeating earnestly, “You 
must not tell the German woman of my brother! 
Enough enemies he has already.” Her voice broke 
as she ended, the deadly fear at her heart over- 
whelming her once more. 

Lucy had reached the lower floor and stood star- 
ing into the dining-room, uncertain what to say or 
do. For Elizabeth, receiving no answer to her 
knocks, had become anxious for Lucy and had 
entered the house, left unlocked since Armand’s de- 

257 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


parture. She stood there within a few feet of them, 
and the day was bright enough for Lucy to see by 
her face that she had heard Michelle’s words. 

Michelle gave a gasp herself, but Elizabeth did 
not wait for either one to speak. 

“ You need not fear me, Mademoiselle,” she said 
quietly, and Lucy thought she had never seen in 
that little figure so much proud dignity. “ I am 
not among the enemies of your brudder, since for 
France I suppose he fights. When I tell Miss 
Lucy I am pro-ally, it is that I am changed in 
heart and soul — not only in my tongue. Better 
you trust me and that we together work, for else it 
is little good that I can do.” 

For a moment Michelle was silent, for the 
struggle in her mind was too intense for words. 
But at the end of that short pause she spoke, and 
the hatred and suspicion had left her voice. Grief 
and anxiety alone remained as she said falteringly, 
“ I will trust you, Elizabeth. You must forgive 
me that I could not before. I think I do so truly 
now.” 

“ Only time will show you that I am true,” re- 
plied Elizabeth, still with a little hurt accent in her 
voice, as though she felt Michelle’s conversation 
was not yet complete. “ It is not for love of France 
that I have turned against my country. It is for 
love of Germany.” 


258 


A CHANCE IN A THOUSAND 


“ Michelle,” said Lucy, breaking in, fearful the 
new alliance would not withstand an argument, and 
wildly anxious to make use of Elizabeth’s helj), 
“ I’m going now, and — I’ll do all I can. You trust 
me, too.” She put her arms around Michelle’s 
neck, with all the warmth of her sympathy and un- 
derstanding, and looked into her face. In her eyes 
she read unwilling consent, and no further objec- 
tion came from her lips. “ I’m going to tell her,” 
Lucy whispered, absolving herself from her prom- 
ise. “ I’ll come again as soon as I possibly can.” 

The next moment she and Elizabeth were out- 
side in the street, walking silently back in the direc- 
tion of the hospital. Lucy gave a keen glance 
about her, and seeing only ruined desolation on both 
sides, quickly began telling Elizabeth the story of 
Armand’s coming, and of the miserable ill-luck that 
had prevented the delivery of Captain Beattie’s 
message. “ Elizabeth, what Michelle didn’t want 
to tell you was that her brother is making his way 
out of the town now. Can’t you discover for us 
whether he gets safely out? They are in such 
awful uncertainty.” 

“I will try. Miss Lucy,” Elizabeth promised. 
“ Tell me how he looks, and to what regiment he 
pretends that he belongs.” 

Lucy gave all the details she was able, and, as 
she spoke, the realization of her failure came over 

259 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


her again in a bitter flood of disappointment. 
“ Oh, Elizabeth,” she groaned, feeling a desperate 
need of her old nurse’s comforting affection, “ to 
think I should have such a chance and miss it! A 
chance we can never hope will come again.” 

Elizabeth could not see Lucy unhappy and re- 
main unmoved. Her dark eyes tenderly softened 
as she said, with a vain attempt at the consolation 
beyond her power to give, “Ach, dear Miss Lucy, 
be not so sad 1 Long ago when I was a child, there 
comes to our house a so kind old man, the friend 
of my father. When any of us children wished 
long for something he would say: ‘ Remember the 
proverb: INIany times your cake may to coal turn, 
but the last time come fair from the oven.’ ” 

“ I don’t want to hear your old German prov- 
erbs ! ” were the words that rose angrily to Lucy’s 
tongue. But she kept them back. Instead, after 
a little silence, she said very thoughtfully, a resolu- 
tion, as yet vague and uncertain, waking to life be- 
hind her words, “ I think the best proverb is one 
that an American made uxd: If you want a thing 
done, do it yourself.” 


260 


CHAPTER XII 


MRS. GORDON AND BOB 

An hour after Mrs. Gordon received news that 
Bob was wounded she had turned over her little 
flock of orphans to a fellow-worker’s charge and 
was on her way to Cantigny. Her companion had 
almost more work of her own than she could man- 
age, in spite of her cheerful willingness to accept 
the added responsibility. Mrs. Gordon felt con- 
science-stricken at imposing the task upon her, but 
nothing at that moment could keep her from her 
son, if she must walk every step of the way to reach 
him. The telegram was scarcely a reassuring one. 
It said, “ Wounded, degree- undetermined,” and it 
had taken twenty-four hours to come the short 
distance. 

At the moment that she set out, however, fortune 
favored her. A big motor-lorry, loaded with stores, 
was crawling along the village street, and a Q. M. 
officer, to whom she had already appealed for trans- 
portation, crossed the street at sight of her, saying: 

“ Here’s your chance, Mrs. Gordon. I’m so glad 
we can manage. This lorry is going to Cantigny 
261 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


and will be faster traveling than the railroad. I 
can’t offer you anything but a seat with the driver.” 

Mrs. Gordon thanked hiin from the depths of her 
heart in a few hurried words, as he stopped the 
lorry and helped her to a place beside the soldier 
at the wheel. “ Make as good time as you can, 
Adams,” he said. “No short cuts, though. Keep 
well out of range.” 

It was only fifteen miles to Cantigny directly 
northeast, but the necessary detours made the real 
distance nearer twenty-five. The road was full of 
holes and cut up into ruts by the heavy^ traffic to 
and from the front. On every side the ruin and 
desolation of blackened shell-torn fields and wood- 
land overpowered the beauty of the springtime, still 
struggling to show itself in nooks and corners that 
had escaped the cannon. The soldier at Mrs. Gor- 
don’s side, a lanky, pleasant-faced New Englander, 
withdrew his eyes from the road occasionally to 
look at his passenger with pity and a kind of 
troubled helplessness in his glance. 

Mrs. Gordon had begun preparing for her jour- 
ney immediately after reading the telegram. She 
had not yielded to a moment’s weakness or inaction, 
but had gone methodically through the details of 
turning over her charges and getting herself ready. 
It was a hot, sultry morning, and in her preoccupa- 
tion she did not realize how hard she worked in the 
262 


MRS. GORDON AND BOB 


hour before leaving. Now, seated in the lorry, 
with two hours at least of waiting before her, her 
courage seemed all at once to give way, and the 
dreadful suspense she must endure became unbear- 
able. Her vivid imagination saw Bob seriously 
wounded, perhaps dying, and wondering why she 
did not come. The sight tormented her so that she 
sank her face into her hands, welcoming the hard 
jolting of the heavy vehicle as at least a momentary 
distraction from her suffering. Her husband had 
been given back to her, and could she hope that Bob 
would be spared too? Then, remembering Lucy, 
she unreasonably hoped again. Surely Lucy’s 
captivity was enough to bear, and nothing further 
would be asked of her just now. 

“ I got a little cold water here. Ma’am,” said the 
soldier, breaking the sound of the laboring motor 
with an embarrassed cough. “ This dust is sure 
the limit.” 

Mrs. Gordon looked up at him and read the sym- 
pathy in his eyes. He held out to her a full can- 
teen, and she took it gratefully, for the dust-clouds 
had dried her throat in the first half hour of travel. 
The dust stuck to her face and hands, too, and 
powdered her clothing, but she hardly noticed it. 
She unscrewed the canteen and poured a little of the 
water into her mouth. It was cool and refreshing 
and, as she swallowed it, she tried hard to get back 
263 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


a little courage and calmness. She had by nature 
plenty of both and, in a moment, handing back the 
canteen to the soldier with a word of thanks, she 
clasped her hands in her laj) and looked about her. 
She could not tell how far they had come, for the 
landscape was much the same, except that a church 
tower, with its belfry shot away, rose now from the 
woody distance. 

“ When do you think we shall get to Cantigny? ” 
she asked longingly. 

“ Well,” was the thoughtful answer, “ sometimes 
I make it in two hours, but that ain’t often. I’ll 
do the best I can, Ma’am. We’ll be there by noon, 
sure. It’s not but ten now.” He glanced at the 
pale face beside him, and at the delicate hands 
clasped so tightly together and added diffidently, 
“ Don’t feel so bad. Ma’am. The Lieutenant is a 
strong young feller. He’ll come out right enough.” 

“ Do you know him? ” asked Mrs. Gordon, sur- 
prised. 

“ Sure I do. I took over this bus full of stuff 
for the aero field only last week. Lieutenant Gor- 
don checked off my list, and when he got through 
he nodded to me and says, ‘ Good work, Adams. 
You really brought everything you were supposed 
to. How did it happen? ’ I had to laugh at that, 
Ma’am, because the truth was I did forget a bundle 
of wire, and the Sergeant called me back for it.” 

264 


MRS GORDON AND BOB 


Bob’s mother tried to smile at the soldier’s story, 
though the remembrance of Bob’s health and cheer- 
fulness was small comfort now. But she had con- 
trolled herself, dreading to become ill and useless 
at the end of her journey if she yielded longer to 
her fears. She straightened up resolutely against 
the hard seat and in a moment answered the man’s 
kindly encouragement by saying, “ Oh, I have good 
hope that he is not seriously wounded. What part 
of the United States are you from, Adams? Where 
is your home? ” 

It was hard to interest herself in the account the 
Yankee willingly poured forth, but nevertheless 
she managed it. In return, the time passed more 
quickly for her, and her nerves grew steadier. 

It was about a quarter past twelve when at last 
they entered Cantigny. It seemed a whole day to 
Mrs. Gordon that she had sat enveloped in the dust 
of that endless road, but on the whole the journey 
had been a quick one. She turned to the soldier 
with brief thanks and farewell, as they drew up at 
the steps of the house made into a hospital. An 
officer appeared in the doorway and Mrs. Gordon, 
summoning all her reserves of courage, in case she 
should have to hear the worst, asked hurriedly: 

“ Lieutenant Gordon, Captain? How is he? I 
am his mother.” 

She never afterward forgot the smile with which 
265 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


the surgeon promptly answered, “You may stop 
worrymg right now, Mrs. Gordon. Your son had 
a bullet through his shoulder muscle; but what’s 
that to a strong young man? ” 

Not until that moment did Mrs. Gordon realize 
the dread she had endured. Now that the fear was 
lifted from her heart, she leaned weakly against the 
doorway, tears blinding her eyes, and hardly knew 
that the surgeon had taken her arm and was urging 
her to follow him. But the next minute she was 
herself again, strengthened by her longing to see 
with her own eyes that Bob was safe. The surgeon 
led her into a good-sized room made into a ward, 
which could accommodate about twenty wounded 
officers. 

He had no need to point Bob out to his mother. 
In a second she was beside him. He was leaning 
against his pillows with one arm and shoulder 
closely bandaged, but his face was not pale nor his 
bright smile changed as he cried out at sight of her: 

“ Mother! I knew you’d come! Oh, I’m afraid 
you’ve been dreadfully anxious.” 

Mrs. Gordon could hardly speak, but her eyes 
told her that Bob was safe and the touch of his 
cool, strong fingers swept her last fears away. 
Near by, on a cot half hidden by a screen, lay a 
young man tossing about and muttering to himself. 
His face was flushed and a wide bandage was 
266 


MRS. GORDON AND BOB 


wrapped about his head, from which the bro^vn hair 
had been cut away. Mrs. Gordon turned back to 
Bob with unspeakable thankfulness in her heart. 

“ I knew you’d be worried,” he said, with a frown 
of anger at sight of his mother’s pale face. “ I was 
in such a hurry to get off the telegram, for fear you 
would hear the news some other way, that I bungled 
things. The obstinate old sergeant here copied the 
message right off the card they pinned on me at the 
dressing-station, before they examined my wound. 
I told him to say ‘ slightly wounded,’ but nothing 
could make him change it.” 

“ Never mind. Bob dear. I know now that you 
are all right,” smiled Mrs. Gordon, sinking down 
on the little chair beside the cot with a sigh of 
peaceful weariness. Her face and hands were 
grimy with dust, but she did not think yet of her 
discomfort. “ Tell me all about it. Bob — how it 
happened,” she begged. “ They let you talk, don’t 
they? ” 

“ Yes, indeed. They let me do anything but 
shrug my shoulders, and I don’t particularly want 
to do that.” Happy in his mother’s presence and 
in the knowledge that she was freed from anxiety 
about him. Bob began telling the story of the fight 
in which he was wounded. A quarter of an hour 
passed quickly while Mrs. Gordon listened with 
fascinated interest, too proud of Bob’s skill and 
267 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


daring to wish hiin more prudent, but sadly fearful 
for the future in the midst of her satisfaction. His 
account was cut short by the sound of a footstep at 
the door of the ward. Bob paused to look up, then 
forgot his story as he called out with a welcoming 
smile, “ Come on in, Harding! Here she is at 
last.” 

While he spoke a young Infantry Captain with 
a bandaged hand crossed the room, holding out his 
sound left hand to Mrs. Gordon. A frank, merry 
smile, that no hardships had yet robbed him of, 
lighted up his face at the pleasure of the meet- 
ing. 

“ Mrs. Gordon! ” he exclaimed, “ I am glad to 
see you.” 

“Dick! You here too?” cried Mrs. Gordon, 
starting to her feet. 

He took her hand and, looking earnestly into her 
tired face, the smile faded from his lips and he said 
remorsefully, “ If I’d only known in time I’d have 
gone to you myself with the news of Bob’s wound, 
and saved you all this worry. I’m convalescent and 
could have got off.” 

Mrs. Gordon patted the young officer’s shoulder, 
looking at him with friendly affection. “ I know 
you would have, Dick. Thank you for thinking of 
it. But tell me what you’re doing here. You’ve 
been wounded again?” Her eyes shrank a little 
268 


MRS. GORDON AND BOB 


from the sight of his bandaged hand, for Dick Hard- 
ing’s first wound had been a serious affair, and well 
remembered by the Gordons, for it was coincident 
with Bob’s capture and imprisomnent. 

He held up his hand to show her, saying reassur- 
ingly, “ It’s nothing this time — just a bullet wound. 
Fingers are all right. Sit down and tell me about 
yourself.” A shadow stole over his face and his 
eyes saddened as he added, “ Don’t talk about 
Lucy if you don’t feel like it, but I’ve thought of 
her so much. I can’t think of anything else.” 

Mrs. Gordon’s eyes filled with sudden tears at 
his words. His grief and sympathy were so sincere 
and real that the little he said meant much to her. 
He had suffered with them during Lucy’s captivity, 
and she and Bob had no secrets from him. 

“ I have nothing to tell you, dear Dick,” she said 
unsteadily. “ The news Bob brought is the last 
we have.” As she spoke her thoughts went back a 
year to Governor’s Island, to Lucy’s and this young 
officer’s pleasant friendship. How long it seemed 
since the July morning that Lucy had waked her 
to tell her that Dick’s regiment had gone. 

“ I can’t help hoping for the best,” Captain 
Harding was saying when she listened to him again. 
“ It seems so wonderful that the Colonel has re- 
covered and that Lucy has found that precious old 
Elizabeth to watch over her. With such good luck 
269 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


I keep looking for more, and, do you know. I’m 
almost sure it will come.” 

It was faint enough consolation, but somehow it 
cheered Mrs. Gordon a little. She smiled at the 
young officer, thanking him in her heart for his 
determined optimism. At the same moment a 
nurse came up to offer her a cup of tea and a chance 
to wash her dusty face and hands. Beginning to 
realize her travel-stained appearance she gladly 
accepted, leaving Captain Harding at Bob’s side 
for a few minutes. 

“ Dick,” said Bob thoughtfully, after his mother 
had left the two alone, “ I’m going to tell her my 
scheme. It’s only fair.” 

“ Your plan to bring Lucy out? ” asked Captain 
Harding, ruffling his hair with a nervous hand, 
while the troubled anxious look returned to his face. 
“ It seems — almost impossible. No, I won’t be a 
wet-blanket,” he added quickly, as Bob frowned at 
him. “ I don’t blame you for attempting the im- 
possible. It’s beyond endurance to leave her there, 
and we don’t seem much nearer to recapturing the 
town.” 

“ It’s a question of getting some of the informa- 
tion we need or of waiting for reinforcements for 
a mass attack along this front. I cavft wait any 
longer without trying something. Mother is worry- 
ing herself sick. If I landed once behind Chateau- 
270 


MRS. GORDON AND BOB 


Plessis why can’t I do it again, and even recross the 
German lines in safety, with help from you fellows 
on this side? ” 

“May I join you, comrades?” asked Captain 
Jourdin’s voice from a few steps away. The 
F renchman had paused on his way across the ward 
for Bob’s invitation, which was not slow in coming. 

“ You’re just the person we wish to see! ” Bob 
exclaimed, reaching out a hand to his friend in 
warm welcome. “ It was bully of you to come 
over. No flights this morning? There’s another 
chair for you, Dick,” he added to Captain Harding, 
who had yielded his own seat to the aviator. 

“Yes, but I came down again early. Things are 
quiet along the line since last night. What is your 
discussion, if I may know? ” 

“ It’s about trying to bring Lucy out of Chateau- 
Plessis. Now don’t shake your head and say it’s 
a difficult undertaking. I know that well enough, 
but I’m going to try it.” 

“ Then it is not my advice you wish, but my as- 
sistance,” remarked the Frenchman. “ Tell me 
your plan and I promise you all the help in my 
power. I will lead a guarding squadron to keep 
off enemy fire — is that what you wish? ” 

“ Just exactly,” said Bob with enthusiasm. “ I 
don’t see why it can’t be done. Anyway, once over 
their lines. I’ll know if I can bring her safely back. 

271 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Lucy could crouch down in the observer’s seat so 
as to be almost entirely sheltered.” 

“And you, Harding? ” asked Captain Jourdin. 
“ You will direct your anti-aircraft battery? That 
will be ticklish work at night, but you can keep the 
Boches wary and unwilling to fly. Once they are 
up you cannot do much.” 

“ I can scare them off a part of the line — enough 
for Bob to make a safe crossing. Our trenches are 
very near theirs at that point. I’ll need search- 
lights, of course. With luck we might even find a 
night when they did not fly. They seem decidedly 
short of scouts around Chateau-Plessis. They have 
massed them at Argenton.” 

“ But it seems to me you are two wounded men. 
How are you to accomplish all this? ” inquired Cap- 
tain Jourdin, in the puzzled tone of a man who 
thought the adventure more gallant than feasible. 
Before his mind’s eye came some of the many air- 
men — Allied and enemy — he had seen fall to death. 
Bob’s chance of safety was no more than theirs, and 
Lucy must helplessly share his danger. 

“ I’ll be up in a week — the surgeon said so,” Bob 
insisted. “And Harding is all right now. He ex- 
pects they will let him out in three days.” 

Captain Jourdin rose quickly at sight of Mrs. 
Gordon, who was just reentering the ward. “Your 
mother has come, Gordon ! ” he said, with keen sur- 
272 


MRS. GORDON AND BOB 


prise and pleasure. “ She loiows of your plan — ^we 
may talk of it? ” 

“ No, but I will tell her right now/’ said Bob. 
“ I certainly can’t try it without her consent.” 

Jourdin had met Bob’s mother in Governor’s 
Island days, and now, in the midst of common fears 
and perils, they seemed rather friends than ac- 
quaintances. Mrs. Gordon greeted him warmly as 
she joined the little group, looking herself again 
with the dust quite got rid of. 

“ What were you saying. Bob? ” she asked, smil- 
ing at her son, from whom she could hardly take her 
eyes. 

Bob told his plan without delay, and Mrs. Gor- 
don, paling a little, listened in silence until he had 
finished. She no longer felt as she would have a 
few months ago at hearing such a proposal. She 
had endured so much, and had seen such terrific 
obstacles overcome by skill and daring, that she 
hesitated to call any feat impossible. It was dread- 
ful to her to think of Lucy’s share in such a des- 
perate venture, but no more dreadful than what she 
was bearing every day in the knowledge of her 
captivity. 

“ What can I say? ” she asked, her voice shaking 
a little. “ It seems a mad attempt, but if there is 
a good chance ” She turned to the French- 

man, fancying that his willingness to help Bob out- 
273 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


ran his confidence of success. “ Would you have 
proposed this yourself. Captain Jourdin? ” she said 
earnestly. “ You have had more experience than 
Bob — does it seem too foolhardy to you? ” 

Jourdin considered a moment, his fine, candid 
face gTave and thoughtful. “We have first of all 
to make known our coming to Mademoiselle,” he 
said at last. “ Successful in that I shall be eager to 
go on. If the firing is heavy we must come back 
without her, that is all.” 

Captain Harding stirred in his chair, frowning 
as he inquired doubtfully, “ How about the old 
man? I can’t see him allowing his squadron to 
go off like that on private business.” 

Major Kitteredge, thus referred to, did seem a 
stumbling-block, and for a moment Bob could find 
no reply. “ Oh, well, he can only refuse,” he said 
finally. “ I’ll ask him. He’s coming to see me 
to-morrow.” 

“Anyway, Mrs. Gordon, it is a very indefinite 
plan yet,” said Captain Harding, thinking Bob’s 
mother had endured enough anxiety for one day. 
“ Nothing can be settled until Bob is well, and you 
know how many things may happen before then. 
Chateau-Plessis may even be retaken.” 

Here the conversation ended, for so many un- 
certainties entered into the project it was hard to 
talk it over. Mrs. Gordon had only that day to 
274 


MRS. GORDON AND BOB 


remain with Bob, and the other two officers rose 
to leave her alone with him. 

Early on the following day Mrs. Gordon re- 
turned to her duty, and, soon afterward. Bob had 
his conversation with Major Kitteredge. 

His superior officer had been very kind about 
paying him short visits, and the old friendship be- 
tween them would ordinarily have made Bob speak 
boldly. But this time caution urged him to be 
wary. He had narrowly escaped disaster the night 
he returned from Chateau-Plessis, and he doubted 
much that his chief would sanction a second visit 
there, or would believe in its possible success. He 
broached the subject nearest his heart by idly re- 
marking: 

“ Funny, isn’t it. Major, how different the dis- 
cipline of the Aviation Corps is from that of the 
other arms of the Service. I mean, every man is 
more or less on his own — he can carry out his plan, 
once he is in the air, without consulting any- 
body.” 

You mean he can obey orders in whatever way 
he thinks best,” Major Kitteredge corrected. “He 
is always following out a plan from Headquarters, 
though it may be a vague one. He can’t, for in- 
stance, sail off and drop bombs on Frankfort, if 
he has been told to harass the enemy troops at 

275 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Montdidier — though both are praiseworthy ob- 
jects.” 

Bob was silent a moment. “ Yes, of course,” he 
assented. “ But if an aviator asked permission 
to make a certain flight over enemy territory 
his superior would probably consent, wouldn’t 
he?” 

“ For instance? ” asked Major Kitteredge, look- 
ing keenly at him. 

“ Well, I know a fellow who is anxious to cross 
the Boche lines near here for reasons of his own, 
A risky flight, as it happens, but worth it to him. 
I wonder if he can get leave.” 

“ Reasons of his own? You mean he chooses to 
take great risks on a flight of no military value? 
No, his commander ought to refuse him leave,” said 
Major Kitteredge frankly. 

“ But if he — took the flight, and — let the cat out 
of the bag later? ” Bob persisted. 

The elder officer still kept his eyes on his com- 
panion. It was fairly plain that he guessed who 
the fellow was of whom Bob spoke. Watching his 
chief’s face. Bob oddly remembered an incident of 
long ago in the. West, at Fort Leavenworth, when 
he had watched that same face with equal anxiety. 
Bob had coaxed the driver of the Q. M. ambulance 
which took the post children to school to let him 
drive the four frisky mules. Neither he nor the 
276 


MRS. GORDON AND BOB 


soldier had counted on passing Lieutenant Kitter- 
edge on the lonely road just outside the reservation. 
How Bob had hoped that morning that the young 
officer would not raise his eyes to the driver’s seat 
and notice this serious breach of orders. Bob had 
already been punished once for it. It seemed im- 
possible that the Lieutenant should not see him, and 
he scorned to hand over the reins at the last second, 
even if it could have been done in safety. The 
officer slightly turned his head and cast a glance 
in their direction, then he looked straight up the 
road again, as the ambulance rolled swiftly by. 
Bob’s boyish heart had warmed with gratitude for 
that friendly blindness. He pulled up the mules, 
handed the reins back to the driver without a word, 
and climbed over to his own place. 

It was his eager study of Major Kitteredge’s 
face now that brought this little scene so vividly 
back. Would he be generous once more, in this 
new favor that Bob sought, and ignore what he 
could not approve? 

“ So you want to go into Chateau-Plessis again, 
and bring Lucy out? ” was the surprising answer 
he received after adong moment. To Bob’s “ How 
did you guess it? ” look Major Kitteredge added, 
smiling, “ You’re a great conspirator. Bob.” Then, 
grown serious again, he said slowly, “ It’s a hard 
question to answer. I hesitate as much on Lucy’s 
277 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


account as for other reasons. She must share all 
the danger.” 

“ But if IMother consents ” Bob put in 

eagerly. 

“At any rate, you can do nothing until you are 
fit for duty,” declared Major Kitteredge. “ You 
know how useless it is to plan a week ahead. Wait 
until you are well, and then we’ll talk about it.” 

Bob was willing to change the subject for a 
while. He stretched his injured shoulder care- 
fully, to try its strength. “Another week and I’ll 
be back on duty. Major. It’s tough, waiting all 
this time. I’m so afraid we’ll commence a push 
and I shan’t be there, after hoping so long for it.” 

Bob believed that a week would see him back at 
work, but the surgeon thought differently, and it 
was ten days after Mrs. Gordon’s departure Avhen 
he returned to duty. His desire to get on with the 
plan for Lucy’s rescue had only increased with the 
delay, and now he was determined to make at least 
a beginning. Major Kitteredge could not object 
to his communicating with his sister and arranging 
some signal which should announce their coming 
when the attempt was made. It was a beautiful 
morning, with a cloud-flecked sky ideal for his 
flight over Chateau-Plessis. The firing along the 
line was light and scattered. He could surely hang 
over the meadows, in and out of the veiling clouds, 
278 


MRS. GORDON AND BOB 

with a fair chance of discovering Elizabeth on her 
daily round. It was still early enough to meet her 
on her morning trip across the fields. 

He had a bundle of papers, containing Lloyd- 
George's latest speech, beside him on the farmhouse 
floor. One copy he had spread against a book on 
his Imee, and was carefully pricking it full of holes. 

“ That you, Jourdin? ” he called out, hearing a 
footfall outside the door. 

“ Yes,” was the answer, as the Frenchman 
entered the room with his quick, light step. 

“ Good. Come and help me with this message, 
will you? I want to say as much as possible in a 
few words, so Elizabeth can read it quickly. See 
what you think of this.” 

He held the sheet of paper to the light, and was 
about to decipher it when Jourdin, laying a hand 
upon his shoulder, interrupted him. 

‘‘ I am very sorry, Bob,” he said. “ We cannot 
think of this now. I came to tell you that we must 
go up at once. The Boches are out in force over 
Montdidier, and half our little squadron has en- 
gaged them. They need help quickly.” 

Before he finished speaking Bob had sprung to 
his feet. The German airplanes were always thick 
around Montdidier. He knew what straits the 
Americans must be in if they had encountered a 
full squadron of their heavy-armed Fokkers. 

279 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ I’ll be with you in two minutes,” he said. “I’ve 
been feeling ever since I got uj) that something was 
going to happen to-day, but I couldn’t tell what. 
Blessings on my shoulder for getting well just in 
time.” 


28a 


CHAPTER XIII 


THE PRICE OF VICTORY 

Eight members of the squadron had remained 
in Cantigny, and these now took to the air — two 
biplanes and four light monoplanes. Both Bob 
and Jourdin were in single-seaters this time; little 
craft in which the pilot must trust to speed and 
dexterity of handling for his defense. Bob’s heart 
beat high with hope and confidence as he rose from 
the field into the bright morning air. They were 
pointed south for Montdidier, and in ten minutes’ 
flight the monoplanes had outstripped their heavier 
comrades. Bob carefully examined his guns and 
everything within reach in the cockpit. His little 
plane was flying beautifully ; the rhythmic pulse of 
the engine told him all was in perfect order, and a 
world of glorious opportunity opened again before 
him. The last days in the hospital had filled him 
with restless longing. His efforts in Lucy’s behalf 
were for the time being thwarted, and for that very 
reason he must put in good work to-day against the 
Boches. 

Jourdin flew right ahead of him and Larry Eaton 
was in a third monoplane at his side. In twenty 
281 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


minutes they had neared Montdidier and, above the 
hot fire from the German trenches, there came 
swiftly into view the battle in the air. Bob had 
taken part in several fierce engagements and had 
grown familiar with the wild thrill that comes with 
plunging into conflict at thousands of feet above the 
earth. But, as the little reinforcing squadron drew 
nearer to the city, he realized that this fight was the 
greatest he had ever seen. 

The air was so filled with planes whirling hither 
and thither, in furious attack or SAvift retreat, and 
the noise of the nearest propellers made such a 
volume of sound that he could make but a vague 
guess at the numbers engaged. Gathered together 
into squadrons, or pursuing each one his enemy in- 
dependently, the airplanes Avere fighting in and out 
among the clouds above the Avhole of Montdidier 
and far beyond the city. Bob’s thoughts got no 
further than this in his momentary confusion, Avhen, 
from a group a fcAV hundred yards in front, a Ger- 
man Albatross scout darted toAvard him. 

He needed no more than this to restore his cool- 
ness and determination. He saw the black crosses 
on the little plane’s silveiy wings, and the Avide 
muzzle of the machine gun, into AA^hich the German 
was fitting a belt of ammunition. His OAvn gun 
was already loaded. The two Aveapons crashed out 
together, the bullets spattering over both moving 
282 


THE PRICE OF VICTORT 


targets; then each swooped lightly out of range to 
maneuver again for the advantage. Bob’s tactics 
were different now when no heavy metal body pro- 
tected him. His Nieuport could not withstand the 
hail of bullets that Jourdin’s battle-plane had re- 
ceived in the fight above Argenton, and to use his 
guns he must swing his whole machine into range. 
He glanced quickly over the cockpit and saw that 
the fire from the trenches was too distant to be 
dangerous. He was flying at just nine thousand 
feet. The next instant his enemy came up from 
below hun, trying for a shot at the tail of his 
machine. Bob dropped in a spin, then paused to 
discharge a stream of bullets on the German’s flank. 
His enemy dodged, but failed to return the fire. 
Bob guessed why. His gun was jammed. The 
German ran away northward. Bob following. The 
two machines were fairly matched in speed. An- 
other German, scenting danger for his comrade in 
the escaping plane, made northward too. A third 
plane followed, and as Bob turned his head to see 
if this last were friend or foe, the pilot’s hand was 
raised in greeting, and Larry Eaton signaled with 
a quick gesture that the second German was his 
quarry. 

Bob nodded agreement and, putting on speed, 
flew after his retreating foe. He was soon making 
a hundred miles an hour and the summer air, thin 
283 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


and cold at this height, cut sharply against his 
face and made welcome the protection of his 
leather coat and helmet. The German was speed- 
ing too, in spite of having to clean and reload his 
guns. In another moment he dived so suddenly 
that Bob flashed right over the spot where he had 
been, as his enemy mounted in a climbing turn 
directly underneath. Bob passed too swiftly to 
receive a close hit, but the German managed to 
deliver a broadside which cut holes in Bob’s left 
plane and sent bullets whizzing against the cock- 
pit and about his head. Now Bob was in front, 
his enemy following. Not liking this new arrange- 
ment, Bob himself dived, circled up at terrific speed, 
and fired a burst at his pursuer as the latter was 
grasping his stick for a plunge. For a second Bob 
thought he had downed his foe, for the German 
plane wavered and one wing tilted as though the 
shots had fatally injured it. But the next moment 
the plane righted itself. The sudden turn the pilot 
made in seeking to escape the broadside had caused 
his machine to veer to one side. The wing was 
cut by bullets, but not more than Bob’s own. Be- 
fore Bob could bring his gun to bear again upon 
his shaken enemy, the German darted upward at 
lightning speed and vanished in a soft white 
cloud. 

Bob hovered, reloaded his guns and, picking up 
284 


THE PRICE OF VICTORT 


his binoculars, looked around for Larry and the 
antagonist he had pursued. How had Jourdin 
ever managed, he wondered, to send down the forty- 
eight enemy planes the famous ace had to his credit. 
It seemed to Bob sometimes as though the winged 
fighters were almost invincible. His best efforts, 
when he flew alone, were usually rewarded by seeing 
his enemy elude him uninjured. 

A cloud lay right beneath him, but as he peered 
down, searching for the other planes, it floated by, 
leaving a clear view of the distant earth below. To 
Bob’s astonishment he discovered that he was over 
Chateau-Plessis. There, off to his right, were the 
wide meadows so familiar to his eyes. Directly be- 
neath was the town itself, looking half-ruined on 
the side nearest the meadows, but growing less 
damaged toward the centre. His surprise once 
over at the distance he had covered from Mont- 
didier, his feeling was one of keen regret. His 
father and Lucy would see the fight above their 
heads and suffer all the pain of suspense and un- 
certainty. Their conquerors would give them no 
news of the battle unless they could announce a 
German victory. For as these thoughts flashed 
through Bob’s mind he saw that this minor fight 
was growing into a battle. 

From the cloud beneath him darted up two Ger- 
man planes, after one of which Larry Eaton’s Nieu- 
285 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


port, with its red, white and blue emblems, closely 
followed. The other German was engaged in a 
duel with a second American plane, which now ap- 
peared behind it, and their loops and spirals left 
Bob at a loss for the moment to see which had the 
advantage. His hand was on his control to fly to 
Larry’s aid, for the foe at that instant had turned 
upon his pursuer. But some good fortune prompt- 
ing him to glance upward. Bob saw his old enemy 
descending on him from the shelter of the cloud- 
bank. The German opened fire, and Bob made a 
climbing turn to elude him before attempting any 
offensive. From his height of some fifty feet above 
his antagonist he saw the German copying his tac- 
tics and rising swiftly to get into range. Bob 
planned a little stratagem. He wanted above all 
things to get rid of this pursuer, for with the tail 
of his eye he saw that the fighters below were en- 
gaged in deadly struggle. 

As the German rose above him. Bob hovered un- 
certainly, firing at his enemy from an ineffectual 
distance, while the latter, contemptuous of these 
scattering bullets, flew nearer on a higher level, and 
prepared to pounce. Bob left off firing, gave a 
swift touch to his responsive motor, and rose like 
lightning to the other side of his adversary. The 
German snatched at his port machine gun, but in 
that second Bob’s deadly broadside had riddled his 
286 


THE PRICE OF FICTORT 


left wing and torn the fabric to rags. The wire 
supports cut loose left the wing sagging and power- 
less. Bob was so close he saw the pilot’s look of 
furious despair. ITe saw, too, that even at this mo- 
ment when his machine wavered to fall, the Ger- 
man’s hand was on his trigger. Bob dropped in a 
tail-spin as the gun crashed out. A hundred feet 
down he paused, hovering, and glanced over the 
cockpit. His enemy’s descent had been quicker 
than his. He saw the helpless German machine 
fall to earth among the streets of Chateau-Plessis. 

The next moment he had darted to the aid of the 
three Allied planes who were now engaged by six 
Germans. Three of these last had risen from the 
trenches in front of Chateau-Plessis. Bob saw 
with joy that Jourdin was fighting near Larry 
Eaton’s side. The second American was a veteran 
of the Lafayette squadron. “We have a good 
chance,” Bob thought with rising confidence. At 
the same time he saw the face of the German pilot, 
who was gracefully maneuvering his monoplane for 
a shot on Jourdin’s fiank. Von Arnheim! Bob 
sent his plane speeding forward, his determination 
roused as never before, his eyes on the German’s 
every movement as Von Arnheim sought with in- 
credible nimbleness to throw Jourdin off his 
guard. 

Meanwhile, in Chateau-Plessis, the friends of the 
287 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Allies were watching the fight with desperate inter- 
est. The planes were too high to be clearly seen 
without glasses, and every pair of French or Amer- 
ican binoculars had been confiscated. Colonel Gor- 
don’s eagerness had led him out into the garden, his 
longest walk since his illness, and Lucy glanced 
anxiously at his pale face from time to time, as side 
by side they watched the distant planes dart back 
and forth against the bright blue sky. It was tor- 
ment to see the fighters’ swift movements without 
being able to distinguish friend from enemy or even 
to guess at the progress of the battle. When Bob’s 
antagonist fell Lucy hid her eyes in horror and dis- 
may. She clung to her father’s arm in panting 
silence, for words were useless. He knew no more 
than she whether it was Ally or German, or even 
Bob himself, who had fallen. The little group 
gathered around them shifted back and forth in 
hopeless efforts to get a better sight of the combat- 
ants. Only the German officers at Headquarters 
knew who was winning, and they were not likely to 
send any news of a reassuring sort to the American 
hospital. 

At Lucy’s entreaty, Elizabeth had gone on a vain 
search for information. Vain at least so far as get- 
ting any accurate news was concerned, for Eliza- 
beth dared not question any one higher in rank than 
a non-commissioned officer, and these were not sup- 
288 


THE PRICE OF VICTORT 


plied with glasses and knew scarcely more than she. 
The little crowd in the square, among which she 
paused, was alive with excited speculation, animated 
or cast down each moment by alternate hopes and 
fears. Pro-German hopes and fears this time, for 
most of the crowd, at least the noisiest part of it, 
was made up of German soldiers. All those off 
duty or convalescent at the hospitals were there, 
and Elizabeth soon found an acquaintance. 

“ Good-day, Sergeant Vogel,” she said politely 
to a burly, broad-shouldered German who stood 
staring upward at her side. “We are winning, 
likely enough, I suppose. I can’t tell though, from 
here.” 

The Sergeant looked down from the sky with a 
short laugh. “ To be sure you can’t, Frau. No 
more can I. All I know is that one of the birds 
fell just now. I hope with all my heart it brought 
a Yankee down.” 

“ Where did it fall? ” asked Elizabeth, cold with 
apprehension. Bob’s smiling young face flashed 
before her eyes, and it was hard for her to listen 
calmly to the Sergeant’s reply. 

“ Off toward the eastern part of the town. It 
was some enemy, be sure of that. I can guess at 
the shape of our planes well enough to see that we 
far outnumber them.” 

Elizabeth dared not show her agitation, nor con- 
289 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


tinue her inquiries. Only a few days past she had 
questioned this same man about the German soldier 
who was Armand de la Tour, until he wondered at 
her idle curiosity. She had learned that Michelle’s 
brother succeeded in getting away undiscovered, but 
her unusual inquisitiveness had excited some sur- 
prise. While she hesitated now whether to go off 
by herself and try to stumble on some news, or to 
return to console Lucy as best she could, a soldier 
came up and murmured something in Sergeant 
Vogel’s ear. The message was not a welcome one. 
The German’s eyebrows and mustaches bristled in 
an angry frown. His face flushed red and his jaw 
closed sharply. All the good-hmnor had left his 
face, but Elizabeth hazarded a timid question: 

“ What is it. Sergeant? May I hear the news? ” 
“No!” snapped the German. “Can’t you 
bottle up your curiosity for a moment? Am I to 
answer your questions all day? ” 

Elizabeth guessed that he was only venting his 
ill-humor on the nearest object, and waited unre- 
sent fully in silence. The Sergeant raised his eyes 
again to the sky, where the airplanes still swooped 
and circled, and the frown and flush gradually left 
his face. In a moment Elizabeth spoke gently once 
more. 

“ I should be so much obliged to you. Sergeant, 
for a little news. One good turn deserves another. 

290 


THE PRICE OF VICTORT 


Don’t you remember how often I supplied you the 
best bread and sausage from my nephew’s shop? 
You and Karl were pretty good cronies then.” 

The German laughed his short laugh again. 
The recollections Elizabeth called up were pleasant 
ones. “ W ell, well, Frau, I see there’s no peace 
until I tell you.” He stooped close to her ear and 
spoke in a gruff whisper. “ It was a German plane 
that fell. The pilot was killed. Keep your mouth 
shut, now ! ” he added sharply. ‘‘ I tell you a bit of 
news for friendship’s sake, but it’s not the sort to 
spread about. Our men are none too cheerful 
lately as it is. A lot of grumbling dogs ! ” 

Elizabeth sadly shook her head, with a look of 
silent grief and disappointment. It was not all 
affected, either, for beneath her genuine joy that the 
unfortunate pilot was not Bob, and that she could 
bring relief to Lucy’s anxiety, her heart ached at 
the death of her young countryman. With all her 
honest soul Elizabeth longed for the Kaiser’s bloody 
tyranny to be overthrown, but sometimes she won- 
dered despairingly if there would be any Germans 
left to enjoy the blessings of peace. 

Eager to return to Lucy, she made her way 
quickly through the crowd, and across the square 
to the hospital garden. Lucy and her father were 
still standing there, gazing up at the sky. Colonel 
Gordon rested his arm against the broken gate- 
291 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


post, but, weary as he was, neither Lucy nor Major 
Greyson could persuade him to go in. Elizabeth 
went up to them and as Lucy’s anxious eyes met 
hers, she said in her soft, quick voice: 

“ It was not Mr. Bob who fell, dear Miss Lucy — 
nor any American.” Her voice sanl^ still lower as 
she added, “ A German it was, but nothing say of 
it to any one.” 

The two faces before her lighted as though a 
cloud were lifted from them. “ Oh, Elizabeth, 
thank you! ” breathed Lucy from the depths of her 

grateful heart. “ I knew you’d ” Her words 

broke off in a quick gasp. Roused by the stir about 
her she had again glanced upward. Another air- 
plane was falling to the earth, whirling down 
through the clear air on one helpless broken wing. 

The battle had begun to shift south again, to- 
ward Cantigny, but, in the hot fighting of the past 
few minutes. Bob failed to notice that they were no 
longer directly above Chateau-Plessis. Jourdin 
had sent down one of his antagonists, and Bob tried 
hard to do as much for Von Arnheim, but without 
success. Jourdin still eluding him, the German 
turned all his attention to the young American. 
Never until that moment had Bob fully realized 
Von Amheim’s skill and coolness. His own move- 
ments, lightning-like as they had seemed before, 
became suddenly slow and clumsy, while a swift and 
292 


THE PRICE OF VICTORT 


deadly fire enveloped him from the enemy swooping 
and dodging alongside. 

He himself dodged, fell in a tail-spin, then rose 
again, vainly seeking to throw Von Arnheim off or 
get him within range. The stream of bullets from 
his own machine gun scarcely touched the little 
plane that circled like a gnat around him, never an 
instant still. Bob’s heart began to pound in his 
ears, and his cool brain grew furious and desperate. 
Unable to endure the galling fire which was cutting 
his wings and beating against the body of his plane, 
he determined to risk a rush at his pursuer. Sud- 
denly the nose of a monoplane shot up in front of 
him. As Bob’s tense fingers felt for the trigger of 
his second gun the stranger pilot gave a shout, and 
Larry Eaton’s eyes looked into his. Never was 
help more welcome. Bob’s courage soared again, 
and while Larry pumped bullets on Von Arnheim’s 
flank, Bob climbed swiftly, and, once above his 
enemy, at last turned an effective fire upon him. 

Von Arnheim dodged in a graceful circle, turn- 
ing this time upon Larry with undiminished vigor. 
Bob saw that his friend was no more able than him- 
self to withstand these tactics. He shot downward 
to Larry’s help, and, diving between the two planes, 
delivered a heavy burst of fire on Von Arnheim’s 
right, just as the German had got into range to 
make an end of his new adversary. 

293 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Larry’s blue eyes flashed aclmowledgment to 
Bob, as Von Arnheim, staggered for the moment, 
sank in a tail-spin, seeking a chance to reload. Bob 
did not follow him. With frantic haste he reloaded 
both his guns, feeling cautiously of his left wrist, 
where a bullet had grazed it. A German Fokker 
had swooped down upon Larry, and Bob, after one 
quick glance about him at the airplanes darting in 
and out among the light clouds, made for the new 
enemy’s left. A German Albatross scout was fly- 
ing toward Larry on the other side, and Bob 
thought to engage the Folcker himself, and give 
Larry a chance for a fair fight with the newcomer. 
At that instant he heard the familiar crackling of 
machine-gun fire directly above, and, looking up, 
saw Von Arnheim coming down upon him. 

He dropped, his spin becoming a spiral dive that 
sent him down a thousand feet, but still the German 
followed. Bob darted to one side and rose at top 
speed, looking for the friendly shelter of a cloud. 
There was none near enough to give him a moment’s 
respite. As he maneuvered his starboard gun into 
range, resolved to retreat no longer. Von Arnheim, 
rushing upon him from a slightly higher level, drew 
his pistol and leveled it at Bob’s head. In that 
breath of time a monoplane, swooping like a hawk 
from above, came between Von Arnheim and his 
prey with a mastery equal to the German’s own. 

294 


THE PRICE OF VICTORT 

Jourdin’s fire struck Von Arnheim full on the 
Hank — impossible to withstand. He dropped like 
a plummet, avoiding new attack by a zigzag fall, 
as Bob and Jourdin closely followed. The three 
were almost on a level. Jourdin glanced keenly in 
Bob’s direction, for Bob’s left wing was badly rid- 
dled. At that instant Von Arnheim, quick as a 
flash of light, leaned forward and discharged his 
pistol at the Frenchman’s breast. 

Bob did not know that he cried out. Overcome 
with grief and horror, he saw Jourdin fall help- 
lessly against his gun. The little monoplane, aban- 
doned by its pilot, reeled and tilted. Bob flung his 
arm up to shut out the sight, but at the sound of a 
propeller near at hand he raised his head and looked 
dizzily about him. With one hand he felt blindly 
for his trigger. Jourdin had fallen, and close to 
Bob Von Arnheim was circling into range, the light 
of triumph in his eyes. Bob’s troubled glance had 
hardly rested on his enemy when Larry Eaton, 
stealing up from below, opened a burst of fire upon 
Von Arnheim’s rear. In that instant, without 
Larry’s interference. Bob would have unresistingly 
met Jourdin’s fate. But as the German turned on 
his new aggressor, the despair that had held Bob 
paralyzed gave way before a new emotion. Never 
in his life had he felt anything like the spirit of in- 
domitable purpose that surged now within him. 

295 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


His face grew hard and pale, his eyes flashed like 
Von Arnheim’s own, and with a swift, light touch 
on his control stick, he flew after Larry in the Ger- 
man’s wake. 

One thing Bob was sure of. He would send Von 
Arnheim down or fall himself. Both of them could 
not survive this battle. He thought coolly and 
quickly now, every sense on guard as he stole up 
behind his enemy. The German was beating off 
Larry’s pursuit with steady firing. Larry would 
try to rush closer in another moment, Bob thought, 
planning how to take his friend’s place in the duel. 
For Larry’s plane was not flying well. It veered 
too much at a turn of the rudder, and Bob looked 
at the wings to see if they were badly torn. As he 
looked, Larry’s plane began to sway and the pro- 
peller’s speed slackened. Engine trouble. Bob 
guessed now, and gave a shout of warning. The 
next moment the engine stopped dead, and Larry, 
abandoning his attack, was forced to volplane down 
as best he could for a landing. 

Von Arnheim followed, firing at the helpless 
plane in its swift descent, but before he had dived 
a hundred feet Bob was beside him. All sense of 
his own danger had vanished as completely as 
though he were invulnerable to Von Arnheim’s skill. 
With careful aim he fired full at the body of the 
German plane. It quivered and tilted while Von 
296 


THE PRICE OF VICTORT 


Amheim, oblivious to his damaged left wing, re- 
turned the attack by a withering blast of fire. The 
bullets sprayed Bob’s little monoplane. His rid- 
dled right wing began to bend and sag. The in- 
struments on the board in front of him were 
smashed to atoms. Von Arnheim had dodged 
again and was behind him. Bob flashed a glance 
at his own wings and thought he could risk one loop. 
Without lessening his speed he turned completely 
over, and darting up behind Von Arnheim in a 
swift and skilful maneuver discharged his port 
gun, from a distance of a few yards, on the right 
wing and rudder. 

With a throb of glorious triumph he saw the Ger- 
man plane pitch forward. Unable to recover, it 
fluttered a moment, vainly struggling for life, then 
plunged down toward the green fields below. Bob 
leaned out and watched it crash against the earth. 
Then, panting a little, he rubbed one hand across 
his forehead and looked about him. He had left 
the other fighters behind. No new enemy threat- 
ened him, and fortunately, for his plane would 
hardly answer the rudder. The right wing was a 
mass of flying ribbons, and the cockpit was dented 
and hammered in by countless bullets. Even pro- 
tected by its metal sides, he could not think how he 
had escaped unhurt. One hand was bleeding, but 
the wound was only a trifle. He began cautiously 
297 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


flying down, fearing to put his damaged wings to 
the pressure of high speed. His one thought now 
was to reach Jourdin’s side. He might have fallen 
in some lonely spot where no one would come to 
him. By the look of the country beneath him, Bob 
guessed that he was somewhere near Cantigny. He 
picked out a level bit of ground and glided safely 
to the grass. 

As he landed he caught sight of a fallen airplane 
in an adjoining field. A little group of four or 
five men were gathered about it. Von Arnheim, 
Bob thought, not realizing that his course had been 
confined to a small circle in the past few moments. 
He climbed out and began running toward the 
group in search of information. Passing through 
a line of shell-torn poplars he came upon Larry 
Eaton’s plane resting at the edge of the field. The 
next minute Larry himself left the others and came 
toward him. Bob looked again at the wrecked 
monoplane beyond, and saw that it was Jourdin’s. 

Larry slowly nodded in answer to Bob’s sad, 
questioning glance. “ He’s dead, Bob. He was 
dead before he fell. He had no other injury when 
they lifted him out.” 

In silence Bob drew near and stood by the body 
of his friend where it lay upon the grass. They 
had taken off his helmet, and Jourdin’s fine face 
looked calm and peaceful in its utter repose. The 
298 


THE PRICE OF VICTORT 


officers and mechanicians gathered about him gave 
tribute of their grief in downcast looks and gloomy 
silence. At Bob’s approach a flash of satisfaction 
lighted their eyes for the swift retribution he had 
meted to Von Arnheim. The officer beside him 
murmured some words of congratulation and sym- 
pathy, but Bob could only nod in answer. He was 
not ashamed of the tears that rushed to his eyes as 
he knelt bareheaded at Jourdin’s side. He thought 
of the fight above Argenton, and of the words that 
had come to his mind that day, as Jourdin stood 
looking at the ruined countryside: 

“We may go under, but not in vain ” 

Not in vain, while America was free and had 
men left to fight. At that moment, as never before. 
Bob felt his consecration to the cause that he up- 
held. Jourdin’s faith and deathless courage be- 
came part of him. 

As he rose unsteadily to his feet, Larry Eaton 
flung an arm about his shoulders and drew him a 
little to one side. 

“ You’re wounded. Bob,” he said anxiously. 
“ Let me look.” 

“ It’s nothing,” said Bob, showing the hand he 
had concealed in his flying-coat. “ I don’t even 
feel it.” 

“ It’s bleeding, all the same. I’ll tie it up for 
you.” 


299 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Under Larry’s commoniDlace words Bob felt such 
genuine friendly sympathy that he was dumbly 
gi-ateful. Larry was just a boy like himself who 
had left Yale to join the army when Bob had left 
West Point. Their thoughts and feelings had 
much in common. He held out his hand and let 
his companion dress the slight wound that caused 
the bleeding. 

“ Von Arnheim — is he dead, too? ” he asked 
presently. “ Where did he come down? ” 

“ On the other side of that little slope. He 
was killed by the fall. Bob, you did a wonderful 
day’s work! Think what Von Arnheim’s loss 
means I ” 

“ We paid dearly enough for it,” said Bob 
sombrely. 

On the day following the battle Captain Jourdin 
was buried behind Cantigny, in a part of his well- 
loved Picardy that the Boches had never reached. 
Officers, men and townspeople followed the body 
covered with the Tricolor; his brother aviators flew 
overhead along his path, and every honor that love 
and homage could devise was paid him. 

At almost the same hour the body of Von Arn- 
heim received honorable burial within the Allied 
lines. Above his grave were fired the three volleys 
which are the privilege of every soldier. Under 
Major Kitteredge’s directions Lany Eaton flew 
300 


THE PRICE OF VICTORT 


over the German lines and dropped a message an- 
nouncing their ace’s death. 

It was the 21st of Jime, one month after the 
capture of Chateau-Plessis. 


301 


CHAPTER XIV 


A DESPERATE RESOLVE 

When the air battle shifted south again toward 
Cantigny Lucy and her father were left in a state 
of dreadful uncertainty. Neither on that day nor 
the next did they learn the result of the fight, ex- 
cept for the vague rumors that went constantly 
from mouth to mouth among the friends of the 
Allies. These felt some hope that the Germans 
had met defeat, because of the complete silence 
their conquerors kept on the subject. German 
victories were usually loudly proclaimed before 
them. But there was talk of heavy French and 
American losses, and this depressing news was all 
that Elizabeth could learn for Lucy. 

Unable longer to bear the continual sight of the 
German ofScers and men in authority at the hos- 
pital, Lucy sought out Michelle the afternoon of 
the day after the battle. 

“ MicheUe, I can’t stand it any longer,” she told 
her friend, in the privacy of the de la Tours’ little 
house. Her calmness and j)atience had all at once 
302 


A DESPERATE RESOLVE 


fallen from her. Michelle looked at her flushed 
cheeks and trouble-haunted eyes, and exclaimed, 
frightened at the change in her: 

“ But, Lucy — what can you do? No good comes 
from fear and anger. I know that well. We can 
do nothing but wait and hope.” 

“ I can't wait and I can't hope any longer! I’m 
not like you, Michelle — brave all the time. My 
courage comes in spurts, and when it goes I am a 
coward. The one thing I cannot stand is wait- 
ing!” 

Michelle was silent, but her expressive face said 
as plainly as words that Lucy might have to bear 
longer than a month what she herself had borne 
four years. 

“ Yes, I know what you think, Michelle,” cried 
Lucy, reading her mind. “ It’s you who should be 
desperate, not I. But it was watching the fight 
yesterday that finished me. Before that I still had 
a little courage left.” 

“ You mean — your brother? ” Michelle asked 
softly. 

“ Yes, not knowing anything — if he is safe, or 
who won the battle. Like Father, I’m getting so 
I can’t sleep or eat or do anything but wonder why 
on earth the Americans haven’t tried to push on.” 

“ I know — I loiow,” Michelle agreed with instant 
sympathy. “ But they will, Lucy. It seems bright 

303 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


to us now, who remember the black days before 
America was with us.” 

“ But, Michelle, Major Greyson and the others 
who can get near the German lines think the Allies 
are going to attack. You know how the firing has 
recommenced toward Montdidier, the last two 
days? Last night a regiment marched through 
Chateau-Plessis on its way south. I’m sure the 
Germans expect something.” 

“ I hope they will wait for it at the wrong place,” 
said Michelle, sighing, “ but they are very hard to 
surprise.” 

“ I know Captain Beattie’s plan of the batteries 
isn’t everything,” Lucy went on earnestly, “ but he 
and Bob are so sure that Argenton is the key to an 
advance along this line. If the Allies can take 
Argenton they think Chateau-Plessis and the towns 
north toward Amiens will fall too. I don’t know 
about Montdidier.” 

“ Yes, so thinks Armand as well,” said Michelle, 
a trifle wearily. “ But we cannot reach the other 
side to tell them what we know.” 

Lucy fell into gloomy silence. Presently, with 
an effort at self-control, she raised her hands to 
smooth her loosened hair, and tried to recover some 
of her calmness. “You have enough to stand, 
without bearing my tantrums,” she said, looking at 
Michelle remorsefully. “ I’ll behave now. Shall 

304 


A DESPERATE RESOLVE 


we go to the hospital? The convalescents are wait- 
ing for their work.” 

“ Yes,” Michelle nodded, “ Clemence goes to the 
Commissariat now. I can stay at the hospital with 
you until she returns.” 

Neither of the two felt much like talking as they 
crossed the tovm a few minutes later. Their spirits 
were heavily clouded, and the occasional sighs and 
ejaculations of the patient old Frenchwoman trudg- 
ing beside them found an echo in their own hearts. 
On entering the hospital Lucy noticed an unusual 
stir and activity about the wards. That some of 
the faces turned toward her were sadder than an 
hour before did not at first strilvc her, because she 
was sad herself. But the next moment she met 
Miss Pearse, and, seeing the young nurse’s troubled 
face, asked anxiously: 

“ Is anything wrong. Miss Pearse? Anything 
more, I mean? ” 

“ Only that they are sending some of our con- 
valescents to prison camps to-day. The order came 
just after you left. Oh, Lucy, I hated so to tell 
them! ” Her voice shook and tears started to her 
eyes, but she swallowed hastily to overcome her 
weakness. “ I must go and help them get off. 
Come into the hall and try to cheer them up a bit.” 

“ Easier said than done ! ” Lucy thought wretch- 
edly. She wanted to do nothing so much as to cry, 

305 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


but she had begun to learn the uselessness of that. 
Michelle caught her hand with a hard squeeze of 
angry understanding as they went on into the con- 
valescents’ hall, where the men to be sent away 
were assembled. 

One of the first that Lucy saw was the little 
Westerner, Tyler, whose cheerful spirit and jolly 
little clay images had done so much for the others 
in the past few days. She longed overwhelmingly 
to give all she had of help and sympathy to her un- 
fortunate countrymen, for the ten or twelve sol- 
diers, French and American, gathered there were 
the picture of despondency. The strength which 
might have upheld them was wanting, for they were 
scarcely recovered or able to be about. Their 
cheeks were pale and their bodies thin from suffer- 
ing and fever. All the courage they could summon 
was only enough to give their set faces a look of 
grim endurance. 

Of them all Tyler seemed to Lucy the most 
pitiful. His hopeful cockiness was almost gone, 
and the strain of getting ready and standing about, 
after the days spent in bed or in a chair, had nearly 
exhausted his wiry little frame. Major Greyson 
went here and there among them, giving what help 
or advice he could, cast dovm like them by the 
knowledge that another hour would see them be- 
yond his power to aid. 

306 


A DESPERATE RESOLVE 

Tyler nodded to Lucy with a last attempt at his 
persistent cheerfulness. 

“ Well, Miss,” he remarked, in such a sad ghost 
of his old chaffing tone ihat Lucy could hardly bear 
to listen, “ I guess it’s a case of ‘ Where do we go 
from here?’ all right, for us. On to Berlin’s the 
idea, I suppose. Hope the Kaiser don’t take a 
fancy to adopt me. Say,” he added, with a look of 
utter misery in his eyes, “ who’d ’a’ thought, after 
twenty-five years I’ve spent in Arizona, that I’d 
end up in Germany? ” 

Lucy stammered out words of hope and encour- 
agement which deceived him no more than they did 
herself. As she went on down the line, repeating 
the same Useless efforts, Michelle ran up behind her 
and caught her sharply by the arm. 

The French girl’s eyes were gleaming and two 
crimson spots burned in her pale cheeks. “ Come 
with me, Lucy ! ” she commanded rather than 
asked. “ The hard time will come when they leave 
Chateau-Plessis ! There we must be to say fare- 
well, for they go almost at once ! I heard speak the 
German guard this moment.” 

Only half understanding, Lucy allowed herself 
to be led out of the hall into the big ward. In the 
bustle and confusion no one noticed their departure. 
They went out by the side door into the garden 
and from here Michelle led the way across the 

307 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


square and eastward toward the edge of the 
to^vn. 

As they hurried along, half -running through the 
almost deserted streets, Michelle explained again 
her purpose. 

“ They must pass on the road that goes across the 
meadows, on their way from Chateau-Plessis,” she 
said, breathing fast. “ It is there when they say 
adieu to the town that they will be triste! It is the 
last French town where they can set foot, for but 
two miles from here the train wiU take them into 
Germany.” 

“ Oh, Michelle, it’s too dreadful to bear! ” cried 
Lucy, bitterly rebelling once more against the 
inevitable. 

“ It is not the first time that I have seen it,” said 
Michelle, her voice suddenly trembling. “ Never 
before, though, have Americans gone, too.” 

As they neared the meadows, making for the road 
that ran across them, north of the German observa- 
tion post, the empty streets became filled with a 
steady line of people, hurrying eastward like them- 
selves. Women, their faces half concealed by 
shawls, with children running beside them, shared 
the road with bent old men who found a cautious 
way among the debris of broken stone. Michelle’s 
was not the only loyal French heart to foresee the 
desolation of the prisoners on reaching the outskirts 
308 


A DESPERATE RESOLVE 


of Chateau-Plessis. One and all had learned the 
news somehow and had come out at any cost for a 
last farewell. 

At the edge of the field where Lucy and Michelle 
paused among the little crowd, stood old Mere 
Breton with a covered basket on the gi’ound at her 
feet. The bright eyes beneath her white cap were 
sparkling with defiance, as with hands on her hips 
she stared across the grass at the German post, 
where a sentry walked, looking curiously toward 
the little throng. Lucy went up to her with a faint 
smile of greeting, guessing at the contents of the 
basket and thinking how hopeless any kindness was 
which could not follow the prisoners beyond the 
German border. 

“ I have something here,” nodded the French- 
woman, pointing to her basket in answer to 
Lucy’s glance. “ They will get a taste of it on 
their way, if I should be beaten for befriending 
them.” 

Before Lucy could reply, Michelle drew her at- 
tention by pointing silently down the street they 
had left behind. The little column of prisoners 
was coming along it, preceded by two German sol- 
diers. The faded blue and khaki of the French and 
American uniforms showed beyond the armed gray 
figures leading the way. The pace had not been 
slackened for these men just from the hospital, in 

309 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


spite of the hot sun and the difficulty of walking 
among the broken stone. 

As they neared the field some of the men glanced 
back into the desolate streets of Chateau-Plessis. 
Lucy knew how dear and greatly to be desired the 
little town must seem. Here they had cherished a 
never-dying hope of freedom, and here, too, were 
friendly hands to tend them, and friendly faces to 
look upon. Ahead lay Germany, where how many 
of their comrades had gone to misery and death; 
where at best only wretchedness awaited them. 

In a moment they had come out on to the meadow 
road, and with one accord every voice in the little 
crowd was raised in greeting and farewell. Kind 
faces, eyes brimming with tears, and hands out- 
stretched with trifling presents of fruit and flowers 
met the prisoners on their way. The children ran 
to clasp the soldiers’ hands, and Mere Breton, her 
basket on her arm, gave out her little store of pro- 
visions as fast as her quick fingers could move. 

All this took so short a time that the guards at 
the front and rear of the column had scarcely time 
to interfere. But now, as the cries on every side 
grew louder and the crowd closed in almost on the 
prisoners’ path, one of the rear guards sprang 
threateningly forward with upraised rifle. Aston- 
ishment and fury were written on his face, that these 
townspeople, so docile and downtrodden, should 
310 


A DESPERATE RESOLVE 


have dared thus to show their unquenchable love 
and loyalty. The prisoners passed, and the little 
crowd, gazing after the retreating column with eyes 
blurred with tears, hardly noticed the brutal figure 
advancing upon them. Mere Breton had emptied 
her basket and was standing now in the road with 
one hand shading her wrinkled forehead. She was 
hoping that a little present had found its way to 
each man’s hands. Her thoughts were all with the 
prisoners on their hard way, but the German guard 
took her preoccupation for defiance. He had 
charged down upon the people remaining in the 
road, and, as these scattered, the butt of his heavy 
rifle was raised directly above Mere Breton’s head. 

Whether he really meant to strike the old woman 
down, or only to terrify her, Lucy never knew. In 
common with half a dozen others she sjDrang to 
Mere Breton’s side and dragged her back as the 
German’s rifle cut through the air. Lucy’s horror 
almost robbed her of power to think at that mo- 
ment, but she had to think quickly, nevertheless. 
Michelle had rushed in front of the old French- 
woman, in furious defense. She stood facing the 
guard with hands clenched at her sides, her blazing 
eyes confronting the man’s angry face, as his rifle 
struck the earth in its harmless descent. His 
fingers clutched it as though for another blow and, 
still seeing Mere Breton as the intended victim, the 

311 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


enraged girl was actually going to offer battle to 
the burly man before her. But Mere Breton had 
slipped safely among the crowd, and Lucy, with 
Madame de la Tour’s face before her eyes, seized 
her friend’s arm and dragged her back with all her 
young strength. The guard, indulging in more 
brandishings of his rifle and a burst of abusive 
Avords, turned to rejoin his prisoners. 

The little group of people were now fast dis- 
persing, their courage shaken and only fear remain- 
ing at the thought of possible punishment. Lucy 
led Michelle quickly across the meadow toward the 
tovm. She did not try to speak at first, for 
Miehelle was still deadly pale and shaking with 
anger. But she struggled to recover her self-con- 
trol, and in five minutes more had calmed herself 
enough to say unsteadily; 

“ I did not think Avhat I did, Lucy. Only to save 
that poor old woman I would fight the Boche. I 
could not help it.” 

“ I know, but think of your mother, Michelle — 
she comes first,” said Lucy, this time the wiser of 
the two. 

“ Yes, you are right,” responded Michelle, sigh- 
ing. She walked on with downcast eyes, depressed 
and miserable after her useless outburst of indigna- 
tion. 

Lucy could not find Avords to express the pity 
312 


A DESPERATE RESOLVE 


she felt for her. Instead, she changed the subject 
by saying, “ I’m coming to spend the night with 
you, Michelle. Had you forgotten? ” 

“ No, not at all. I am too glad that you will 
come to forget,” said Michelle sincerely. She 
looked up at Lucy as she spoke, the blazing light 
quenched in her eyes. “ What time will you come? 
Perhaps a little more early? ” 

“ I’m not sure. I — Elizabeth may not be able 
to go when she promised,” said Lucy, floundering 
a little. 

“ But she said she could bring you early to- 
night — soon after the dark,” Michelle persisted. 

“ Yes — she said so, but you never know. Don’t 
expect me very early,” was Lucy’s rather evasive 
answer. At any other time Michelle would have 
remarked her friend’s lack of candor, but just now 
she was too unhappy to be observant. 

“ I’d better leave you here,” said Lucy, as they 
approached the middle of the town. “ You are 
near home, and I shall go straight to the hospital. 
I’m breaking my word to Father and Miss Pearse 
every minute — though I suppose our being together 
isn’t quite like running off alone. Anyway, I was 
so excited I never thought.” 

“ Yes, poor Maman would be sadly anxious if 
she knew,” Michelle agreed soberly. “ Good-bye 
then, mon amie. I will wait for you to-night.” 

313 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 

Lucy reentered the hospital with slow and heavy 
steps, a quarter of an hour later. She had grown 
deeply thankful that her father’s convalescence was 
slow and uncertain. Suppose he had been one of 
those to whom she had just said good-bye? But 
he was gaining strength daily. Could the time be 
deferred much longer when he would be sent away? 
As she pondered these things Major Greyson, who 
had known her well in the old days, glanced at her, 
startled by the change in her face. Her hazel eyes 
had become sombre and watchful, her lips were 
pressed together, and her cheeks at that moment 
had lost their healthy color. The surgeon looked 
after her frowning and troubled. He was thin 
and worn himself, but he did not think of that. 

Lucy was crossing the convalescents’ hall, now 
so sparsely occupied, toward the nurses’ dining- 
room, when a voice called eagerly, “Fraulein! 
FrMein! ” 

Rebelling at the sound of the hateful German 
tongue, she would have gone on unheeding, but a 
German doctor was right in her path, and she dared 
not risk his ill-will. She turned toward the voice 
and saw Paul Schwartz leaning from his chair with 
a bright smile on his face. Half Lucy’s anger left 
her at sight of him. She could not cherish it against 
this simple peasant with the mild eyes and childish 
flaxen hair. 


314 


A DESPERATE RESOLVE 

“ What is it, Paul? ” she asked, going up to 
him. 

“ I am discharged ! ” he cried, his voice trembling 
with joy and his blue eyes shining. “ To-morrow 
I start for home — for the Schwarzwald! I will be 
lame,” he added, his smile fading a little, “ but I 
can get about, and it is much to be at home again.” 

Lucy had not the heart to say less than, “ Oh, 
that’s fine, Paul. I’m so glad. You will see your 
wife then, and the little girl? ” 

“ Yes, yes, all! And I have my pension, too — 
quite a sum.” 

“ I will come and say good-bye before you go,” 
Lucy promised, stumbling with the German words, 
as pity and anger struggled together in her heart. 
Paul was going back to his peaceful home, thankful 
to get out of the war. But her father and brother 
and countrymen were but just entering it. A long, 
hard fight was ahead of them. 

In a minute, however, her natural good sense 
began to overcome the brooding dread that was 
tormenting her. “ It may not happen,” she told 
herself, trying to be hopeful again. “Anyhow, I 
won’t be any good, this way, for what I have to do.” 
And at thought of one task that lay before her she 
felt the need of calmness and courage as never be- 
fore. She nodded to Paul, and went on with a 
quicker step into the nurses’ dining-room. 

315 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 

That evening, a little after eight o’clock, Lucy 
drew near to Michelle’s house, and at the garden 
gate Elizabeth turned to leave her. The German 
woman had snatched this time to bring Lucy across 
the town, but her work was by no means done and 
she was returning at once to the hospital. Lucy 
bade her good-bye with strange reluctance. She 
was about to deceive her faithful friend, and she 
hated the necessity for doing so. But Elizabeth 
could not spare her any more time to-night, and 
Lucy well knew she could never win her old nurse’s 
consent to her project. 

When Elizabeth had turned her back Lucy went 
a few steps into the garden and waited behind the 
shelter of a bush. She must deceive Michelle, too, 
for on Madame de la Tour’s account she did not 
want her company, glad as she would otherwise 
have been of it. But, frightened or not, her in- 
creasing horror at the German captivity now far 
outweighed her timidity at venturing alone to the 
prison. For it was Captain Beattie she was de- 
termined to see again, and without another night’s 
delay. 

After a moment she went back to the gate and 
looked cautiously down the street. Elizabeth had 
disappeared. It was clear moonlight and the de- 
serted street was sharply outlined in light and 
shadow. There was little chance of moving un- 
316 


A DESPERATE RESOLVE 

observed in the moon’s path, but by contrast with 
its soft radiance the shadows looked black and deep 
along the walls. Lucy left the garden and made 
her way as quickly as constant watchfulness would 
permit along the now familiar streets leading to- 
ward the prison. She was in a miserable state of 
mind, but the fear that hurried her footsteps was 
not caused by her own solitary errand. It was all 
for her father at thought of the irrevocable fate 
hanging over him. Irrevocable unless she could 
do something to prevent it, for, however feeble her 
efforts must be, she saw no other help in sight. 
Remembering the chances she had missed of com- 
municating with the Allied lines she came near to 
thorough dejection. How differently Bob would 
have managed things in her place! She could not 
know how close to despair her brother was at that 
moment, and how his cherished plan for her release 
had died with Jourdin’s death. Since the battle of 
yesterday Lucy hardly dared think of Bob. 

She reached the prison square, and slackening 
her pace, began creeping along in the shadow of 
the walls. The prison guard-room was lighted and 
the door open. As she paused uncertainly, flatten- 
ing herself against the stones of the house opposite, 
the old guard came noisily out and, shouldering 
their guns, marched off across the square. The 
relief proceeded to make a round of the prison. 

317 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Finding all secure, both men retired into the guard- 
room again and shut the door. 

Lucy breathed a thankful sigh and moved 
cautiously on to where a shadow falling on the 
street gave her a chance to cross unseen. The next 
moment she was behind the prison and lifting her- 
self up to Captain Beattie’s window. 

He was there close by it, as though expecting 
her, and the warmth of his welcome did something 
toward cheering her depression. 

“ You got off safely that night, Lucy? ” was his 
first eager question. “ Those prowling soldiers 
didn’t see you? How that’s worried me ! ” 

“ Oh, they didn’t catch a glimpse of me. I’m 
sorry you’ve been anxious. Here’s all I could 
bring you. Captain Beattie,” she said smiling. 
“ It’s better than nothing.” 

For two days Lucy had saved a part of her 
bread and potatoes, and these she held out in her 
handkerchief, close to the bars. The young pris- 
oner’s gratitude made her almost happy for a 
moment. The prison wall cast a deep shade on the 
moonlight-flooded courtyard, but in spite of it a 
little light penetrated the bars and, for the first 
time since she had visited the prison, Lucy could 
see the young officer’s face. It was thin and sad, 
though a brave smile touched his lips now in answer 
to her searching glance. 

318 


A DESPERATE RESOLVE 


‘‘ What should I do without j^ou, Lucy? ” he 
asked, giving her hand a warm, friendly grasp, as 
she clung to the bars. 

“ Goodness, I don’t do much,” said Lucy, sigh- 
ing. As she spoke she remembered that time was 
precious, and her voice grew alert and earnest. 
“ You can’t possibly get out of here — that’s sure, 
isn’t it? ” 

The Englishman laughed rather bitterly. “Quite 
sure. The surest thing I know. Some famous 
prisoners I’ve read of contrived to saw their bars 
with a fish-bone or a pair of scissors, but I don’t 
seem to have the knack of it.” 

“ Don’t you ever wonder, though, what you’d do 
if you could manage to get out — how you would 
escape to our lines? ” 

“ Of course I do ! There never was a prisoner, I 
expect, who didn’t dream of escape. More than 
that, I have planned it all out — getting across the 
German lines, I mean. It’s a beastly waste of time, 
but Heavens, I have to think of something. How- 
ever, I’ll be out soon enough,” he added grimly. 
“ They’ve kept me here to be questioned by the 
divisional commander. He came yesterday, and 
our talk was so dull I dare say I’ll be on my way 
to Germany within the week.” 

“ Oh, perhaps not — don’t think of it,” stammered 
Lucy wretchedly. Then she drew a quick breath. 

319 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ I wish you’d tell me, anyway, about your plan to 
cross the lines. Captain Beattie. You must be so 
tired of thinking here, all alone. I want to talk to 
you a little while. The guard has just been around, 
so they won’t come again.” 

“ You know, I heard what those two fellows said 
the other night when they stopped in front here. 
Poor kid, how scared you must have been.” 

“I was! You mean what one said about the 
chateau hill being a weak point in their defenses? ” 

“ Yes — and he was right, too. I’ve been all 
over that part of the town^ — last month when the 
Germans were pushed back. I’m so sure of the 
ground that my plan for breaking through was 
made for that spot, even before I heard those sol- 
diers talking.” 

“ How would you go about it? They must have 
some defenses there.” 

“ Oh, yes. There’s a trench line running right 
through the chateau park — an old one. But, 
poorly garrisoned as they are here, they don’t hold 
it in any force. They simply mount guard on the 
hill, as that fellow told us. They count on being 
able to reinforce the trenches long before an in- 
fantry column could advance across that pond and 
marsh.” 

“ But the big guns — aren’t there any up there? ” 

“ There were last winter, but, from what he said, 
320 


A DESPERATE RESOLVE 


there are none now. They must plan to rush them 
from the rear, in case of an attack. It looks like a 
real shortage of artillery.” 

“ Well, aren’t you going to tell me your scheme?” 

“ If you really want to hear it. I’ve spent hours 
devising it, but I’ll cut the telling short. First, 
you’ll have to pretend that I’m outside the bars — 
for getting out is beyond me.” 

“All right. You are here where I am.” 

“And it’s about ten at night; but no moon, or at 
least a clouded one. Starlight would be much 
better. I creep along the streets to the eastern 
edge of the town — for I don’t dare cross it straight 
west — until I reach the meadows. These I skirt, 
gradually getting westward and nearer their lines, 
until I come out behind the chateau hill, the south- 
western point of the to^vn. This far I’m pretty 
confident of success. The place is too deserted for 
me to be discovered, short of villainous ill-luck.” 

“ Now you’re behind the chateau hill,” Lucy 
prompted. 

“ Getting up the hill through the wood is not very 
dangerous — past the stream, you know the place? 
I’m not likely to meet a soul there, for the guards 
probably go up by the trenches. Now I’m at the 
top, with the chateau in front of me, also the trench 
line and the sentries. But we can take it that the 
trench isn’t held, or they wouldn’t have sentries. 

321 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ To right and left stretches the German line. 
This part is ticklish. Some nights I make it easily 
enough; others I’m challenged at the second step. 
I turn left, around the park, avoiding the open 
lawns, where the artificial lake and the fountains 
are, and, keeping well under the trees, cross the 
trenches at an unguarded point. But by the time 
I’m on the left of the chateau the cover ends, and, to 
avoid coming out on to the grass in full sight of a 
sentry, I have to climb down the side of the hill — a 
regular precipice just here, if I remember right, but 
it can’t be helped. It’s dark, mossy rock — no one 
from the trenches below could see a moving figure 
against it — and with care I get down to the foot 
safely and find myself at the edge of the swamp. 
The trenches are behind me, on the left of the hill, 
and they are strongly occupied here. The Allies’ 
lines are a mile away, beyond the swamp and pond 
and a stretch of level ground. My back aches at 
thought of covering it, though my khaki is good 
protection — ^nearly earth color in the dark.” 

“ But the swamp — can you get through that?” 

“ Oh, it’s not a real bog. You don’t go in above 
your ankles, but every step is likely to make a 
squelching sound. This is the place where the 
chances are I would be seen or heard. I have to 
walk bent almost double among the long grass and 
reeds. My only hope is that the big night-birds in 
322 


A DESPERATE RESOLVE 


the marsh have accustomed the soldiers’ ears to 
strange noises — for the trenches are only a hundred 
yards behind me on this side of the hill. Once 
safely through the marsh, I drop down at the edge 
of the j)ond to get my breath and reconnoitre. The 
pond extends so far that to avoid it would mean a 
long detour in the open. It’s not wide, though, 
scarcely two hundred feet. The castle hill is a 
quarter of a mile behind me. I’m well on my way, 
if a stray bullet from one side or the other doesn’t 
find me about this time. If not, I guarantee to 
slip into that pond without a sound and swim across 
undiscovered, provided the moon doesn’t shine upon 
it to show me climbing out on the far bank. Star- 
shells, too, would be my finish. I can only trust 
there won’t any fall my way. Once I’ve slijDped 
out of the pond and started crawling foward again, 
barring bullets — and I have faced a lot and missed 
them — I’m pretty near success.” 

“ But when you get to our trenches — won’t they 
shoot? How will you prove who you are? ” Lucy 
asked with breathless eagerness. 

“ I’ll call out, and show that I’m alone. I’d 
convince them, right enough. Wish I had the 
chance! They won’t shoot without a look at me. 
Too many of their own men are likely to be out on 
listening post.” 

There was a moment’s silence, then the young 

323 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


officer said quickly, a keen self-reproach in his low 
voice, “ What am I thinking of, keeping you here 
to listen to all this nonsense ! Go back now, Lucy, 
at once. You’ve been here long enough.” 

“All right,” she agreed, after a minute’s pre- 
occupation. She began to speak again, stopped 
short, and finally stretched her hand through the 
bars and gave her friend’s a warm, lingering clasp. 
“ Good-bye, Captain Beattie,” she said, and the 
Englishman fancied her voice shook a little. 

“Good-bye, Lucy! Wish better luck for us 
both. And come soon again, or you’ll find me 
gone,” he answered, forcing what cheerfulness he 
could into the cheerless words, his pity for Lucy 
just then stronger than any for himself. 

“ Good-bye,” she repeated, as earnestly as be- 
fore. Then dropping down from the bars she be- 
gan her cautious x>rogress back around the prison. 

“ I will get to the de la Tours’ by ten o’clock,” 
she thought, wondering if Michelle had been long 
expecting her. Then, all Captain Beattie had said 
crowding into her mind, she glanced up at the moon 
with troubled eyes. As though it felt that appeal- 
ing and reproachful look, its bright face vanished 
from her sight behind a fleecy little cloud. 

Early the next morning, when Lucy returned to 
the hospital, she met Major Greyson in the ward. 
The surgeon’s face was so sad and filled with dis- 

324 


-A DESPERATE RESOLVE 


may that Lucy stared dumbly at him. He did not 
wait for her to speak. 

“ IVe been looking for you,” he said, drawing her 
aside to a window, his usually brave and hoj)eful 
voice dull and heavy. “ I’ve done everything pos- 
sible. I pretended to the last moment. But the 
German doctor himself examined all the patients 
to-day. He saw that the Colonel had no fever.” 

As Lucy, with swiftly mounting fear, struggled 
to understand these incoherent x^brases. Major 
Greyson reached out and took her hand in his. 

“ It’s no use, Lucy. I’ve got to tell you. Your 
father is considered well enough to travel. He will 
be sent to Germany day after to-morrow.” 


325 


CHAPTER Xy 


ACROSS THE LINES 

About half -past nine that night Lucy entered 
Miss Pearse’s bedroom and left a note on the little 
dressing-table. Miss Pearse did not come off duty 
till eleven, so there was time enough, Lucy thought. 
Then she returned to the hospital and stole into the 
dining-room. Elizabeth had finished her work 
there, and against the wall hung the apron the Ger- 
man woman would i)ut on again at daybreak to be- 
gin her hard day’s labor. Lucy slipped another 
note into the pocket and turned back to the door 
with a heavy sigh. She had not the courage for 
farewells made without betraying her purpose, and 
to betray it meant to put an end to her plan. Her 
father’s answer would be instant prohibition ; Eliza- 
beth would certainly tell Colonel Gordon if Lucy 
confided in her, and even Michelle’s terrified per- 
suasions she could not face just now. The hos- 
pital was filled with its usual stream of tireless 
workers. Lucy made her way unnoticed into the 
garden and out into the street. 

She looked up at the sky with deep gratitude, 
326 


ACROSS THE LINES 


for the moon was completely hidden behind dull, 
heavy clouds. A warm wind was blowing, with 
rain in its wake. It tossed Lucy’s hair about her 
face, and every gust brought down loose fragments 
of brick and stone from some crumbling wall near 
by. She longed for another talk with Captain 
Beattie, but she kncAV well enough that the young 
Englishman would never have told her what he did 
if he had for a moment guessed her purpose. She 
was puzzled to discover at that moment that all fear 
had left her. She did not realize that it was only 
submerged beneath a far greater fear — the dread 
of standing at that meadow road and watching her 
father go by into German captivity. 

Her mind was but little excited as she walked 
quickly along the dark streets toward the west — 
the road to the supply depot. Her thoughts just 
then were all with her mother, that mother she had 
trusted in so entirely for guidance until these last 
few months, and to whom she could not turn now 
for help in her necessity. But even this thought of 
her was some comfort. Lucy felt dimly that her 
mother, did she know, would understand, in spite 
of fearing for her safety, that she could not stay 
helplessly in Chateau-Plessis, and leave her father 
to his fate. “ If Captain Beattie’s knowledge can 
help the Allies, I must try to reach them,” she 
thought, without any further doubt or hesitation. 

327 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


At the end of half a mile she came to a narrow 
street leading south, up a gentle slope. It was the 
one that she and Michelle had followed when they 
went to the stream below the chateau hill in search 
of clay for the convalescents. Lucy recognized it by 
the little church that stood at the corner, its pointed 
spire, still undamaged, showing faintly against the 
cloudy sky. She turned to the left up the street 
and stole cautiously along it. This was the part 
of town nearest the firing-line, and soldiers were 
likely to be met with. In the south, toward Mont- 
didier, she could hear the guns faintly booming, but 
in front of Chateau-Plessis all was quiet enough. 
The street gradually rose higher, becoming a lane 
that opened out into woodland part way up the 
chateau hill. 

It was nearly half a mile from the little church 
to where the lane ended, and Lucy’s cautious feet 
took some time to cover it. The moon was still 
hidden, for the storm-clouds had grown heavier. 
The wind, too, had increased, and when she came 
out on to the hill the pine branches were tossing 
furiously about, with a noise like dashing water. 
She paused for breath, after her quick climb up the 
slope, and peered ahead through the trees, and then 
back toward the town. The scattered houses along 
the street she had left were in darkness, for no un- 
necessary lights were permitted after eight o’clock. 

328 


ACROSS THE LINES 


All around her was darkness, too, through which she 
could distinguish the black tree-trunks, the outline 
of the wooded hill in front of her, and the clouds 
scudding overhead. Her heart had begun to pound 
with exertion and excitement, and her mind wavered 
in its calm confidence. But her determination was 
as strong as ever. If she could not go on cool and 
fearless, she would do so trembling and afraid, but 
go on she must. 

She drew a long breath and began climbing the 
hill, through the dense growth of pines. In a few 
minutes she came to the stream whose course she 
and Michelle had followed down to the clay bed at 
the foot of the slope. She could hear the water 
flowing swiftly over the stones close beside her, and 
shaping her course by it, she kept near the middle 
of the hill and before many moments reached the 
level ground above. Here she stopped, resting her 
hand on a swaying pine trunk and listening in- 
tently. No sound but the wind in the trees came 
to her ears. Thinking of Captain Beattie’s words, 
“ Some nights I make it easily enough — others, I’m 
challenged at the second step,” she crept out of the 
wood to the edge of the wide open lawns behind the 
chateau. 

The towers of the beautiful old building rose 
dimly against the sky about five hundred yards 
ahead, at the end of a broad avenue of pines. One 
329 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


tower had been destroyed by shell-fire, leaving only 
a crumbling ruin. Across the lawns she saw the 
broad, dark line that marked the trenches. Further 
on, the pine groves closed in again, covering the 
slopes of the hillside. To the right of the chateau 
Lucy caught sight of the little artificial lake, by the 
dull gleam reflected on its surface. Near the edge 
stood a summer-house, with slender marble columns. 
Her eyes lingered on it, trying to detach a dark 
shadow from the climbing roses that fell in a shower 
over the white columns. In a minute the shadow 
moved and became the figure of a German sentry. 
He strolled out to the border of the lake and raised 
his head toward the stormy sky. Luc}^ glanced 
quickly around her, suddenly cold in spite of the 
sultry heat before the storm. She felt surroimded, 
trapped, before she had even left the cover of the 
woods. That solitary sentry became a company of 
men searching for her with keen, merciless eyes. 
Furious at her own weakness, she looked around 
once more for reassurance. There were no other 
guards in sight. Anyway, she must go on. She 
crept back into the shadow of the pines and began 
circling the crest of the hill to the left, watching and 
listening with infinite caution. Of the trenches 
running across the lawns she had seen nothing but 
a dark line of sand-bag defenses. If there were 
men behind them they were invisible. She was fol- 
330 


ACROSS THE LINES 


lowing one of the pretty paths that wound through 
the wooded park of the chateau. In another 
moment she came upon felled pine trunks and 
heaped-up earth, over which she stumbled. Breath- 
less with terror, she waited tensely for a challenge, 
but none came. Not a voice was heard, though be- 
fore her she could now see the trench-line, a deep 
cut in the ground, with piled-up earth in front of 
it. She stole up to the very edge and looked down. 
A fallen pine trunk had been laid across as a foot- 
bridge. The complete lack of human voices or 
movement below told her that the trench was 
deserted. 

But no answering hope or confidence sprang up 
within her. That lazy figure by the lake had not 
looked as if he had the entire hill to guard. If the 
trenches were empty the line was watched some 
other way. In her wary and suspicious advance 
Lucy put one foot on the slab of pine trunk that 
served as bridge, testing her foothold and staring 
across into the shadows. Just as she started for- 
ward a twig cracked beneath a heavy foot and a 
sentry came into view on the other side of the 
trench. Lucy had flung herself on the ground 
among the fallen boughs before the German had 
even time to turn his head. The wind sighing 
through the branches effectively drowned whatever 
slight noise she made. The sentry shifted his gun 

331 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


without a glance in her direction and passed up the 
line among the trees. 

For five minutes Lucy lay there motionless, and 
at the end of that time the sentry returned along 
his beat. At his reappearance despair almost con- 
quered Lucy’s terror. She knew she dared not 
venture across that “ abandoned ” line. In the 
darkness, on unknown ground, she stood little 
chance of passing undiscovered. To judge by the 
length of the soldier’s beat, at least a dozen sentries 
must be patrolling the woods about the castle. 
The lawns were easily watched from the summer- 
houses or from the chateau. For one desperate 
minute retreat suggested itself to Lucy’s mind. 
But self-reproach and anger mounted swifter than 
the thought took shape, and she knew that her pur- 
pose remained undaunted. All courage aside, she 
was as afraid to turn back as to go on ; to make her 
way to the town again, confessing failure and facing 
the certainty of her father’s departure. As that 
realization swept over her, she crept up to a pine 
tree, and leaning against its base, searched fever- 
ishly for some way to go on. 

The chateau! That was a part of the line of 
defense, and to pass through it would be to pass 
the trenches. However full of unknown perils it 
might be, she thought she could face them better 
there than in this gloomy and terrifying wood. 
332 


ACROSS THE LINES 

But here difficulties again confronted her. Was 
the chateau inhabited? She had seen no lights, but 
surely the sentries would be likely to take refuge 
in it from the storm. Could she possibly get 
through that great building unseen, since not a 
step of the way would be familiar? But think as 
she would no other solution came to her. Even in 
her dark dress she dared not try to cross the open 
lawns. The wind was bending the pliant pine 
boughs in every direction, and some of them struck 
against her as she rose to her feet and started back 
the way she had come. In a few minutes she 
paused uncertainly, for she no longer felt the path 
beneath her feet. Fearful of completely losing her 
way, she turned directly toward the chateau and 
presently came out at the edge of the lawn not far 
from the avenue. The chateau was approached by 
a drive winding up the gentler slope on the side of 
the hill toward the town. This road became the 
pine-bordered avenue that ran over the lawns, 
offering Lucy shelter from near where she stood to 
the terrace at the rear of the building. 

A flash of lightning cut through the dark clouds 
as she reached the avenue. By that flash she saw 
the road stretching empty before her. She began 
running, oblivious to prowling sentries, the only 
sounds in her ears the sigh of the swaying branches 
on each side and the distant rumbling thunder. In 
333 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


five minutes she stopiDed, panting, a few yards from 
the terrace at the back of the chateau. Long 
French windows opened on to it, but their glass had 
long ago been shattered, and in the wind the 
neglected shutters were banging to and fro. Lucy 
stole up the steps of the terrace, and, approaching 
one of the windows, flattened herself against the 
wall and glanced back about the lawns and gardens. 
By the lake the sentry was still pacing. She could 
see the faint gleam of his bayonet as he moved. 
But he had not discovered her. No other sentry 
was in sight, so far as she could pierce the shadows. 
She turned to the window and peeped cautiously 
through. Darkness reigned within, and the wind, 
whistling through the rooms, made the heavy hang- 
ings against the walls flap like sails in a storm. 
With a quick sigh that was something like a gasp 
at thought of the unknown dangers before her, 
Lucy stepped through the window, shrinking from 
the jagged edges of the broken glass that caught 
at her hands and clothing. 

Inside, she stopped for a second, making sure of 
her direction, then moved on through the room, 
feeling every step of the way and more than once 
narrowly avoiding a collision with some piece of 
furniture in her path. She reached the opposite 
side and saw an open doorway leading onward. 
Beyond it was a large hall or drawing-room, for at 
334 


ACROSS THE LINES 


the far end were windows, and the lightning play- 
ing against them showed the vast interior, filled with 
the debris of broken furniture, but quite deserted. 
Enormously relieved, Lucy started quickly for- 
ward, urged by a rising hope of success. In her 
impulsive haste she ran full against a stool or small 
table. Startled, she sprang back, and the object, 
flung aside by her sudden movement, fell to the 
floor with a noise that echoed through the building. 
Almost with the sound a door was thrown open 
somewhat on her right. As she stood frozen to the 
spot with horror, a candle shone out of the darkness 
and a loud, commanding voice shouted, ‘‘ Wilhelm! 
Wilhelm! ” 

Scarcely were the words spoken when Lucy, re- 
covering her power of motion, fled across the room, 
glancing wildly about her for some way out. The 
windows in front were raised from the floor, and 
she dared not try to climb through one and risk 
showing herself against a glare of lightning. On 
her left she dimly saw an open doorway. With 
pounding heart she darted to it, and, arms out- 
stretched before her, passed through the opening, 
down a corridor, and found herself before an arched 
entrance lighted by a faint red glow. 

The room beyond, into which she ran, mortal 
fear of what lay behind driving her on, was huge 
and lofty, with narrow, pointed windows whose 
335 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


leaded panes were imitated in the glass doors of the 
countless bookcases which lined the walls. The fire 
which gave light to see burned faintly in a massive 
marble chinmey-place and was mostly fed by some 
of the priceless books torn from these very shelves. 
Before the chinmey were several pots and kettles, 
and other evidences that the fire was used by the 
sentries to cook their food, since an abundance of 
fuel lay close at hand in the thousands of volumes 
the library contained. They were strewn all over 
the polished floor, and Lucy stumbled over them as 
she stopped in the middle of the room, looking 
desperately around her for some place of conceal- 
ment or escape. 

There were no hangings on the walls and the 
bookcases seemed to offer no safe hiding-place. 
She approaehed the chimney, with a vague idea of 
crouching behind its shadowy columns. By the 
flickering firelight the motto cut into the marble 
caught her eyes : En avant pour le droit. 

But now, hearing no sound of pursuit, her terri- 
fied mind regained a little power of thought. She 
stole over toward the windows on the right, one of 
which was entirely shattered. Fearful of listening 
ears she moved with infinite caution, and reaching 
the window, stood aside from it to peer out on to 
the terrace and lawns in front of the chateau. A 
clearing had been cut in the trees that crowned the 
336 



SHE APPROACHED THE CHIMNEY 



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ACROSS THE LINES 


hilltop, to open a view of the valley below. Just 
now the trees were onl}^ dark blotches framing a 
stormy sky. Lucy drew back after one swift 
glance. A sentry was walking across the lawn 
beyond the terrace. Struggling with the confusion 
that began to take possession of her, she looked 
toward the windows at the far end of the room. At 
that moment heavy footsteps sounded in the cor- 
ridor, with the gruff murmur of conversation be- 
tween two advancing men. Then the voice from 
which she had fled, raised more angrily than before 
against the increasing noise of the wind, shouted: 

“ Wilhelm ! Wilhelm ! Sehen sie ! ” 

There were no two ways open. As the Germans 
entered the library Lucy slipped through the broken 
window, and dropping on her hands and knees, 
crawled along the stone terrace, over a broad para- 
pet of sand-bags rising in her way, until she reached 
the lawn. That voice had been heard beyond the 
chateau walls, for as, shaking with fear, she looked 
back to where the sentry paced, she saw the man 
running up the steps of the terrace toward the 
library windows. Without waiting for more she 
rose to her feet and ran like a deer to the crest of 
the hill, where it sloped dovm to the valley. She 
was well ahead of the precipitous rocks down which 
Captain Beattie had planned his descent. She made 
for the gentler declivity in front, dodging about a big 
337 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


raised platform that was a German gun-emplace- 
ment. As she crossed the clearing, which opened 
like a little amphitheatre in the woody hillside, a 
marble summer-house set in the centre, big rain- 
drops began to fall. Lightning glared from the 
heavy storm-clouds and the rumbling thunder was 
succeeded by a tremendous peal. Then the pine 
trees swallowed her up, and she began to feel her 
way among the trunks, which bent and groaned 
about her in the fierce gusts of wind. 

Whether the front of the hill was guarded beloAv 
the crest Lucy had no idea. Even had she known 
there were sentries about her she could have done 
nothing else than press on, panting, in the windy 
darkness, the growing downpour of rain penetrat- 
ing the branches and striking on her head and 
shoulders. Now and again the lightning shone on 
her path, revealing the rough, wet trunks and 
writhing green boughs around her, and the thunder, 
crashing overhead, drowned the incessant noise of 
the wind and rain. The storm had become the only 
enemy against which she struggled as, step by step, 
she fought her way down the slope. At last, when 
a strong blast of wind showed her she was nearing 
the open, a flash of lightning disclosed the gleam- 
ing wet swamp and the level ground around it at 
the base of the hill. 

Beneath the last pine tree Lucy flung herself 
338 


ACROSS THE LINES 


on the ground to catch her breath. She was 
drenched from head to foot. With wet fingers she 
felt inside her dress to see that Captain Beattie’s 
j)recious paper was safely held in its scrap of 
canvas and protecting handkerchief. Reassured, 
she pushed her dripping hair from her face and 
stared out over the swamp. She knew that gTeat 
obstacles were still before her. But she had burned 
her bridges. To retreat through the chateau was 
unthinkable. 

In a few minutes the rain and wind began to 
diminish, and the clouds overhead parted, turning 
from black to gray. The lightning became less 
frequent and the thunder sank to a sullen mutter- 
ing. Lucy studied the sky with deep anxiety. 
She was eager to have the lightning cease, but 
knowing the uncertainty of summer storms, she 
dreaded lest the clouds should drift entirely by and 
the moon appear, while she was still before the 
enemy’s eyes. There was no time to lose, and she 
had begun to fear that Wilhelm’s master might put 
the men in the trenches on guard against the un- 
known intruder. She sprang up and stepped out 
on level ground, and into the spongy, yielding earth 
at the border of the marsh. 

She knew that the trenches were close behind on 
her left, and a shiver ran through her as her foot 
withdrew from the soaked ground with a loud 
339 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


squelching noise. On a quiet night any sound 
might have reached her from where the soldiers 
watched behind their defenses, but in the rumbling 
thunder and the gusts of wind blowing away the 
last of the rain she heard no sign of their presence. 
The reedy grass came above her waist as she stooped 
forward, feeling her way along the precarious foot- 
ing, every nerve and muscle on the alert to receive 
the warning of danger. An occasional backward 
glance at the chateau towers rising above the gloom 
of the hill was her only guide, for the plain 
stretched dimly in front until it was lost in ob- 
scurity. Suddenly, with a frightened squawk, a 
big marsh-bird rose with flapping wings from under 
her very feet. With loud cries at such unexpected 
disturbance it fluttered over her head, and only 
settled dovm once more when she had been reduced 
to abject terror. Whether the keen ears behind 
her became suspicious at the bird’s alarm, or 
whether the quieting of the storm made sounds 
more clearly audible, Lucy at that moment heard 
a voice. 

It came from the trenches, but what it said or 
ordered she had no idea. It gave strength and 
speed to her tired and trembling limbs, so that she 
fled on across the marsh nearly as fast as though 
she were on dry and level ground. Her ankles 
ached unbearably, and her beating heart hammered 
340 


ACROSS THE LINES 


against her ribs when she stumbled on to a little 
ridge of grassy ground just beyond the swampy 
bottom. With stoo];)ing shoulders and head bent 
down she had no chance to see ahead. Now she 
looked up and saw the dull gleam of water only a 
few yards in front. With a sigh of utter weari- 
ness she dropped to the wet earth and lay motion- 
less. 

A bright glow reflected in the waters of the pond 
made her start up. She thought of lightning, but 
one glance showed her the graceful, rocket-like 
form of a star-shell falling across the sky. It came 
from the Allies’ lines. The French and Americans 
were on the watch for any surprise attempted under 
cover of the cloudy darkness. Lucy sank back to 
earth, a bitter reproach in her heart for this friendly 
weapon discharged against her. The light sputtered 
out, and with the return of darkness she sat uj) and 
struggled for courage to go on. She drew Cap- 
tain Beattie’s message from inside her dress and 
tied the handkerchief around her forehead like a 
close-fitting bandage. She felt doubtfully of her 
rubber soled sneakers, and deciding they were too 
light to impede her progress, crept forward to the 
edge of the pond. 

At that moment a sound which she had heard a 
second before and wondered at was unmistakably 
repeated. The Germans in the trenches were re- 
341 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


j)lying to the star-shell with a scattering fire. The 
shots were few and far apart, but Lucy heard one 
bullet sing over her head, and that was enough. 
There is a courage that comes with desperation, and 
it was this which caused her to crawl instantly for- 
ward into the lake and strike out across it. 

The cool water brought a welcome sense of 
refreshment and cleared her whirling mind a little. 
She swam on strongly, trying hard to make no 
sound and to keep her arms beneath the surface, 
and searching the sky with frightened eyes, dread- 
ing to see another star-shell flaring up. She heard 
no more shots behind her, and this brought back a 
little hope. She struggled to keep the stroke even, 
and not to hurry it, for the pond was at least one 
hundred feet across, and she was burdened by her 
clothing. But to swim slowly and calmly was too 
much for her. She could not resist bursts of speed 
as, from the darkness behind, her straining ears 
imagined every sort of approaching peril. When 
at last she neared the opposite bank, her breath was 
coming in painful gasps and she was dangerously 
near exhaustion. With a few more frenzied strokes 
she managed to get within her depth, and in another 
moment crawled weakly out on to the grassy field 
beyond. 

She lay there on her back, a prayer of thankful- 
ness on her lips, though, as she untied the handker- 
342 


ACROSS THE LINES 


chief from about her head, she watched the sky with 
fresh anxiety. The clouds were rapidly dispersing 
and a faint silvery gleam announced the moon’s 
coming. She thought that in another quarter of 
an hour these level fields would be flooded with 
moonlight, and she, too far from either line to be 
closely distinguished, would be a target for both 
sides. But she had to have breath to move, and for 
flve minutes longer she lay panting before she rose 
from the ground and began i)lodding wearily on, 
her body bent forward and her feet stumbling over 
the little grassy hummocks in her way. A line of 
dark objects, coming suddenly into view, gave her 
a sickening pang of fear. But as she crept up to 
them they proved to be only the stumps of what 
had been a row of trees bordering a field. It 
seemed to Lucy that she had struggled on for long 
miles through the darkness when all at once the 
moon shone out in cloudy radiance. With a gasp 
she stopped short, staring wildly before her. Not 
three hundred yards in front a tangle of posts and 
barbed wire extended before the Allies’ trenches. 

She was in plain sight, but at that moment even 
a bullet from her own countrymen seemed better 
than what she had fled from so long. She raised 
both arms above her head and walked straight on 
toward the edge of the barbed wire, behind which 
showed the sand-bagged parapet of the trenches. 

343 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


Rifle barrels glinted over the top and a helmeted 
head popped into sight. 

“F-friend!” stammered Lucy, her scared little 
voice sounding strangely out of the night. “ Don’t 
shoot! I’m an American! ” 

“ It’s a woman — it’s a girl! ” cried an astonished 
voice. 

A dozen heads were raised above the trench, a 
murmur of voices filled the air, and the next instant 
two soldiers had si3rung over the top and were 
running toward her. The first caught her by the 
arm and drew her swiftly toward the trenches, 
saying: 

“ Through this way — here’s a lane in the wire! ” 

“ But where on earth do you come from? ” de- 
manded the second, slipping between her and the 
distant German lines. 

“Just follow on now, as quick as you can!” 
urged her guide. 

Lucy hardly heard them. She knew that she 
was led safely through the wire, and that strong 
arms lifted her down inside the American lines. 

For a minute she was near to fainting, but the 
triumph filling her heart cleared her brain and 
overcame her exhaustion. A light flashed in front 
of her, and some one held a cup of water to her lips 
as she sat on the fire-step of the trench and leaned 
panting against the parapet. A dozen soldiers had 
344 


ACROSS THE LINES 


crowded around her, expressing every degree of 
pity, wonder and admiration. The next moment 
the light revealed a sergeant hurrying along the 
trench, with an officer following. 

“ Here she is, Lieutenant,” said the sergeant as 
they stoiDiDed at Lucy’s side. 

The lantern raised above Lucy’s head illumined 
her figure, as, disheveled and drenching wet, she sat 
on the muddy fire-step. The young officer’s 
astonished face was on a level with hers as he sanli 
down beside her, asking hurriedly: 

“ You’re an American? What on earth were 
you doing out there in front of our lines? ” 

“ In front of ? ” Lucy repeated faintly. 

“ Why, I came from behind the German lines — I 
came from Chateau-Plessis.” 

“ From Chateau ” The lieutenant’s words 

were lost in a cheer that rang out deafeningly be- 
tween the trench’s narrow walls. Helmets were 
franticallj^ waved in the air, and a dozen hands were 
held out for Lucy’s grasp by the eager listeners 
about her. She felt her face flush hot and her 
heart bound with happiness. It was true — she had 
succeeded! It was hard to realize. 

“ She crossed the German lines 1 ” 

“ That girl— all alone! ” 

“ Be still — the Lieutenant wants to talk to her.” 

The murmur died away as the officer, no less 
345 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 

enthusiastic than his men at that moment, inquired 
once more: 

“ You got over here from inside the town without 
being seen? You deserve a war medal! SVhat 
were you doing in Chateau-Plessis? ” 

“ My father is there a prisoner. He’s Colonel 
Gordon. I had to come,” Lucy ansAvered, still 
breathless and somewhat incoherent. Then she 
started fonvard from where she had leaned Avearily 
against the supj)orting timbers of the trench, saying 
earnestly, “ I can’t tell you the rest noAv. Where 
is the divisional commander? Will you take me to 
him? I have neAvs for him that mustn’t AA^ait any 
longer, and I am afraid he is a long Avay from here.” 

“ No — General Clinton is at a farm only five 
miles behind us — betAveen here and Cantigny. He 
has been inspecting along the line. Of course you 
may see him,” the lieutenant added, rather puzzled, 
“ but must it be at once? You look used up, and 
the trip Avill be pretty uncomfortable after all this 
rain. The roads are a sea of mud — not to mention 
a Avalk through the trenches.” 

Mud — discomfort — Lucy almost laughed aloud 
at his words. She had seen a good deal of both 
that night, and Avhat were they compared to the 
anguish of mind she had borne in the past weeks? 
She could endure any hardships noAV Avith this 
glorious hoj)e flooding her heart. 

346 


ACROSS THE LINES 


“ I don’t mind how bad it is,” she said quickly. 
“ I only want to see the General as soon as I can.” 

The young officer read the clear, eager purpose 
in her eyes and gave a nod of consent. At his 
order a soldier led the way with alacrity, lantern in 
hand, along the trench. Lucy rose and followed, 
and the lieutenant came behind her, after stopping 
for a word with the sergeant. 

“ We have half a mile to walk,” he told Lucy, 
pointing ahead along the mud and water of the 
trench bottom. 

She nodded, undismayed. The line of men 
standing behind their rifles at the parapet, of whom 
many turned to her with looks of astonishment and 
eager friendliness, were but dim figures that seemed 
a half-waking dream. “ They’re Americans. I’m 
with Americans,” she repeated to herself, and the 
joy welling up at the thought made her almost 
dizzy as she trudged along the wet, slip]3ery 
path. 

It is at such moments that physical discomfort is 
liardly felt and, weary though she was, Lucy did 
not suffer greatly during the long hour’s journey. 
The tramp through the trenches was followed by a 
ride in the bottom of a motor-truck, along a dark 
road that the rain had transformed into a bog. 
The three passengers were flung from side to side 
as the heavy wheels struggled through the ruts, or 
347 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


careened into the deep gullies. The laboring motor 
stalled and missed fire, and the moon, hidden again 
behind a cloud, gave no light now when it was so 
sorely needed. 

At last the truck reached drier ground, and 
stopj)ed before a lighted house in the middle of a 
grassy meadow. Mud-splashed and bruised from 
the terrific jolting, Lucy was helped down, and the 
j^oung officer took hold of her arm and led her 
inside the door. In the little hallway he left her to 
speak with an orderly, who preceded him to an 
adjoining room. Lucy heard murmurs of con- 
versation and, bej^ond the doorway, saw a second 
officer standing, with papers in his hand. She took 
out the handkerchief from inside her dress, making 
also a futile effort to smooth her hair, which, diying 
during the long ride, had begun to curl in a tangled 
mass about her head. In another moment the 
young lieutenant who had brought her returned, 
saying: 

“ Come right in, the General will see you.” 

Lucy followed him into the anteroom, whose 
farther door the other officer was holding open. 

Beyond it a broad-shouldered man with iron-gray 
hair was seated at a big desk under the electric 
light. His face was turned toward the door, and 
as Lucy entered he rose sharply to his feet, saying 
with quick earnestness, “You are Colonel James 
348 


ACROSS THE LINES 


Gordon’s daughter? You came from Chateau- 
Plessis? ” 

He j)ut his hands on Lucy’s shoulders, fixing his 
eyes on hers. 

“ Yes, General,” Lucy answered with trembling 
eagerness. “ I am Lucy Gordon. I have been in 
Chateau-Plessis since before the Germans took it. 
My father is there still.” 

“You got through the enemy lines — you crossed 
over to us alone? ” the General insisted, his glance 
softening with pity and wonder as he surveyed 
Lucy’s mud-stained and bedraggled figure, and the 
shining, eager eyes in her tired face. 

“ Yes, I did; I had to. They are going to send 
Father into Germany, and I couldn’t stay there and 
do nothing, when I thought I had a chance to save 
him.” 

“ You have courage enough for anything! What 
can we do, though, poor child — unless they will 
delay your father’s going for some daj^s longer? 
But tell me how on earth you got over 
here!” 

“ I brought you something that I know will 
help,” Lucy persisted, and with shaking fingers she 
unfolded her handkerchief and laid the precious 
slip of paper in General Clinton’s hands. “A 
British officer who is a ]3risoner in Chateau-Plessis 
gave me this. He was captured at Argenton, and 
349 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


that drawing shows what he learned of the 
defenses.” 

“ The defenses of Argenton? ” As the General 
spoke he sat dow^n at his desk with the paper quickly 
spread before him, and the two young officers with 
one accord sprang to his side. 

“ The road is the fortified ridge. The soldiers 
are the batteries. He explained it to me,” said 
Lucy, breathing fast. 

The General wheeled about in his chair and 
looked at her with a new light in his eyes. “ You’ve 
done us a good turn, my little girl! ” he exclaimed, 
and reaching for Lucy’s hand he took it in a strong 
clasp. “ You are of the sort that will bring victory 
to America, and I’m proud of you ! ” 

Lucy’s heart was too full for words and her eyes 
filled up with sudden, smarting tears. The two 
junior officers, seeing her emotion, checked and cut 
short the burst of generous praise that rushed to 
their lips. 

Almost at once the General continued, “ I must 
question you in detail before any use can be made 
of this plan. Also, I must hear how you got out 
of the town. But first I will let you dry your 
clothes and rest a little. You have done enough 
for one night.” 

Lucy raised her head, dashing the tears from her 
eyes. “ I can answer any questions now, General 
350 


ACROSS THE LINES 


Clinton,” she said quickly. “ Do you think I have 
come all this hard way, and almost died of fear, to 
go and rest before telling you all I can? Don’t 
think of me, or anything but learning what you 
want to know.” 

Her firm, earnest voice, and the steady light in 
her eyes carried reassurance and conviction. Gen- 
eral Clinton gave a nod of satisfaction, and his 
voice, as he ordered Lucy to take a seat beside him, 
told her that her answers would hold a new weight 
and value in his mind. 

“ My only fear,” he began, “ in trusting to this 
plan you have brought is that you may have been 
deceived by some sharp-witted German knave. 
Who was this officer who gave you the informa- 
tion? ” 

“ Captain Archibald Beattie of the Royal In- 
fantry. He is a prisoner in Chateau-Plessis.” 

“ Wheeler,” said the General, turning to his aide, 
“ where is that British liaison officer who was with 
us to-day? Could you get hold of him? ” 

“ Yes, sir, he is right in the other farm building,” 
said the aide, saluting. 

“ Find one of our machine-gun officers, too,” the 
General added as the lieutenant turned to leave, 
“ Where did you see this Englishman? ” he con- 
tinued, facing Lucy once more. 

“ The first time was when a German officer made 

351 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


me interjpret for him what Captain Beattie said, 
because I speak a little German. After he was in 
the old town prison I used to see him through the 
bars of his window. He gave me this plan in case 
I should ever be able to send it to our lines. I 
missed two chances in succession, so there was no 
way but to come myself.” 

“ What chances could you have had? ” 

“ My brother Bob landed in Chateau-Plessis 
once, but that was before I knew about the hidden 
guns at Argenton. Then a French spy got into 
the town, but I failed that time, too.” 

“ Here they are, sir,” said the other lieutenant, 
going toward the door. 

Steps sounded outside and crossed the outer 
room. The aide reappeared, with two officers be- 
hind him. One was a tall, handsome Britisher 
about thirty years old, whose face was so strangely 
familiar to Lucy that she stared at him wonderingiy 
as his hand rose to the salute. But the impression 
passed, for he bowed to her without recognition. 
Before the General had more than spoken a word of 
greeting, the second officer entered the room and 
stood at attention. Then at sight of Lucy he gave 
a gasp of such surprise as almost caused him to 
forget the General’s presence. 

“Lucy! Lucy Gordon! You are free!” he 
cried. 


352 


ACROSS THE LINES 


The General looked up sharply. “ You know 
her then? And you, Miss Gordon? ” 

For Lucy had leaped to her feet to hold out both 
hands to the young officer, her face all lighted up 
with joyful recognition. 

“ Oh, yes. General,” she stammered, struggling 
for words in her happiness at sight of this long-lost 
friend, “ it’s Captain Harding! ” 

“ Well, Captain Harding, I congratulate you on 
your friend,” said the General with a kindly smile. 
“ This young lady crossed the German lines to 
bring us this plan of the Argenton defenses. I will 
ask you two gentlemen to give me your opinion 
on it.” 

Making a respectful effort to hide his astonish- 
ment, and to silence his unbounded admiration. 
Captain Harding bent, together with the British 
officer, over the little paper on the General’s desk. 

“ Now, Miss Gordon, please tell us again about 
that British officer who gave you this plan,” the 
General commanded. 

“ He is Captain Archibald Beattie, Royal In- 
fantry, captured at Argenton on May 17th,” Lucy 
repeated. 

“Beattie — ^Archibald Beattie!” exclaimed the 
British liaison officer. “ I know him. General ; he is 
a prisoner now.” 

“ Yes, in Chateau-Plessis,” Lucy nodded. “ He 
353 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


is young — about twenty-one — with light brown 
hair and blue eyes, and a little scar on his fore- 
head.” 

“Just so! He got that scar from a grazing 
bullet at Ypres. If this plan is from him, sir, it’s 
trustworthy. Why, that’s his writing at the bottom, 
‘ Changing the guard ’ I ” The Britisher’s calm 
face had grown flushed with excitement. “ Then 
the group of men must represent batteries? ” 

“ Yes, so he told this young lady. What part of 
the ridge would that be, Harding? ” 

“ The west front, sir, where the concealed 
batteries are. The main front! ” Captain Harding 
exclaimed, overcome with joy. “ Oh, sir, we should 
be able to silence those guns now! ” 

His hand, behind the General’s back, came down 
on Lucy’s shoulder with a pressure that would have 
been painful if its friendly and delightful meaning 
had not increased her happiness. “ Oh, but you’ve 
done a good piece of work. Captain Lucy! I al- 
ways knew you had it in you,” he whispered. 

“ Next week — the attaek we had planned ” 

the General was saying. 

Forgetting herself, Lucy interrupted him. “ Oh, 
not next week. General ! Right away ! My father 
will be sent into Germany day after to-morrow.” 

The General swung around in his chair and looked 
at her with keen, thoughtful eyes. “ I can’t make 
354 


ACROSS THE LINES 


promises,” he said at last. “ But if any 0116 has de- 
served to have her father saved it is you. And the 
army cannot afford to lose Colonel Gordon if 
there’s a chance of reaching him. Tell us what else 
you know.” 

“ I can tell you the weakest j)oint in the line be- 
fore Chateau-Plessis. Captain Beattie and I heard 
two German soldiers talking about it outside his 
prison window. But he knew it before anyway. 
It was there that I got through.” 

“ Wheeler, bring that scale map and put it on 
the desk,” ordered the General. “ Gentlemen, draw 
uj), and Miss Gordon will show us just exactly 
where she crossed the lines.” 

The British officer, rising to obey this invitation, 
held out his hand to Lucy as he neared the desk. 
His face had in it something more than a friendly 
admiration for her brave exploit. 

“ I want to congratulate you myself, Lucy Gor- 
don,” he said. “ I’m your cousin. I’m Janet’s 
brother, Arthur Leslie.” 


355 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE YANKS ARE COMING 

At daybreak of the morning following Lucy’s 
departure from Chateau-Plessis Colonel Gordon 
awoke to the boom of cannon. He raised his head, 
listening intently. In a moment he was aware that 
the fighting had recommenced along the whole 
front. He guessed that the bombardment ex- 
tended from Argenton as far south as Cantigny, 
though as yet the lines in front of Chateau-Plessis 
were quiet enough. He rose and dressed and went 
out into the garden. 

The sentry glanced at him with a look of sur- 
prise and annoyance, for he was not the only one 
who had been roused by the guns. Several of the 
convalescents were strolling about the garden, 
though in the faint light of a foggy dawn Colonel 
Gordon could distinguish them but vaguely. 
Neither could he see the sky beyond the town, but 
the fog could not prevent his hearing, and his ears 
told him much. The bombardment was steadily 
increasing. The German artillery in front of 
356 


THE TANKS ARE COMING 


Chateau-PIessis had gone into action now, and the 
vibrations of the powerful explosions began to 
shake the air. From the distant boom of the guns 
before Argenton to the crash of those but a mile 
away, the mighty volume of sound rolled ever in- 
creasingly on the listeners’ ears. 

As Colonel Gordon stood motionless by the 
garden wall, the figure of a French officer advanced 
out of the fog and came to his side. 

“ Good-morning, Colonel,” said his fellow pris- 
oner, and m the Frenchman’s voice Colonel Gordon 
detected something of the longing hope that was 
stirring his own heart. “ What do you think of it? 
It sounds as if they were in earnest.” 

He s^Doke very low, and Colonel Gordon an- 
swered him as softly, “ It is evident that the Allies 
began the attack. I’m sure the firing commenced 
from our own lines. The German batteries in 
front of the town have but just come in.” 

“ The attack appears to be developing on our 
flanks — Chateau-PIessis is not directly menaced 
yet. I fear it could not be held, even if taken, 
while the enemy holds Argenton.” The French- 
man’s eager voice had gro^vn more anxious than 
hopeful as the situation grew clearer to his 
mind. 

“ That is probable enough,” Colonel Gordon 
muttered thoughtfully, “ but. Captain Remy, I 
357 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


think the Americans are opposite us, and they are 
not likely to attempt an advance over this unknown 
terrain without good hope of success.” 

Colonel Gordon was not at heart quite as con- 
fident as he appeared, as the Frenchman easily 
recognized, but both men knew the value of a little 
optimism, and Captain Remy allowed himself to be 
somewhat encouraged. In fact, notwithstanding 
the obstacle of Argenton’s formidable defenses, the 
thought of that American army about to strike with 
all the ardor of its growing strength and determina- 
tion was cause for hope and even for confidence. 

An hour passed while the two officers stood there, 
listening in silence, and occasionally exchanging a 
few words. When a German orderly came to call 
them back to the hospital they left reluctantly. 
The crash of the guns was the only sound they cared 
to hear just then, and the only sight their eyes 
looked for the dark puffs of bursting shells in the 
sky beyond the town, from which the fog had begun 
to clear away. 

Inside the hospital Colonel Gordon caught sight 
of Elizabeth and stopped the German woman on 
her hurried way across the ward. “Where is Lucy, 
Elizabeth? ” he asked. “ She is usually here before 
this time.” 

Elizabeth’s face was flushed and troubled, and 
her hands began clasping each other nervously. 
358 


THE TANKS ARE COMING 


Colonel Gordon thought he guessed the reason for 
her uneasiness. Convinced as he was of his old 
servant’s loyalty to the Allies’ cause he could not 
but suppose that her feelings would undergo some 
conflict on the eve of another fight. 

Elizabeth stammered a little as she answered, 
“ Miss Lucy not yet is here, Colonel. She told me 
I should say to you that she will before very long 
see you.” 

This vague reply satisfied Colonel Gordon for 
the moment, and he went in to breakfast, still deeply 
thoughtful over the commencing battle. It was 
easy to see that every one in the hospital shared his 
preoccupation. The Americans and their allies 
listened to the roaring cannon with eager, intent 
faces. Between patients and nurses many a hope- 
ful word or meaning glance was exchanged, in spite 
of German doctors and orderlies near by. These 
seemed not to share in the keen interest the others 
showed. They looked sullen, anxious and ill-tem- 
pered. Many a poor French or American soldier 
was roughly handled that morning by a German 
orderly who saw a chance to vent his smouldering 
resentment. By no stretch of imagination could 
any German in Chateau-Plessis see a cheerful pros- 
pect ahead. When the French and British had 
exacted from them such a fearful toll during the 
progress of Germany’s victorious spring offensive, 
359 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


what would the price be now that America had 
joined the ranks of the Allies? 

The bombardment had grown heavy and con- 
tinuous all along the line. Colonel Gordon pres- 
ently started back to the garden, but was prevented 
by the sentry on the path outside, who shook his 
head scowlingly, with upraised rifle. Surprised at 
this sudden change of front. Colonel Gordon went 
back to his room and looked out of the main window 
toward the west. The sky was filled with darting 
airplanes, and bursting shrapnel formed countless 
dark spots among the white clouds beyond the town. 
As he looked, the scream of a shell drowned for 
a moment every other sound. The next instant, 
with a terrific explosion, a jet of earth and stone 
rose into the air not five hundred yards distant, 
leaving a gaping hole in the street leading westward 
from the hospital. 

Colonel Gordon turned to the door of the room, 
and catching sight of Miss Pearse, motioned quickly 
to her. The big ward had suddenly taken on a 
look of excitement and confusion. A German 
doctor was loudly issuing orders right and left. 
Miss Pearse ran to Colonel Gordon’s side, her face 
reflecting the emotions that filled her heart almost 
to bursting at that moment. Colonel Gordon gave 
her no time to speak before he asked sharply: 

“ Where is Lucy? Why isn’t she here? ” 

360 


THE TANKS ARE COMING 


Miss Pearse gave a quick sigh, as though she had 
nearly reached the limit of endurance. She drew 
Colonel Gordon back into the room, and said with 
what calnmess she could muster: 

“ I will have to tell you. Colonel, and I can’t take 
long to do it. I hope and believe that Lucy is 
safely inside the Allies’ lines.” 

“ Where? AVhat? ” gasped Colonel Gordon, 
stupefied. 

Miss Pearse took Lucy’s note from her apron 
pocket and put it in his hands. “ That will tell 
you all I know,” she said. 

With trembling fingers Colonel Gordon held the 
slip of paper to the light and read the following, in 
a hurried, blotted likeness of Lucy’s writing: 

“ Dear INIiss Pearse: I am going to try to cross 
the German lines to-night, to take Captain Beattie’s 
plan to the Allies. I cannot stay here and see 
Father sent to Germany. I know a way — by the 
chateau hill — where perhaps I can get through. 
If I succeed I will beg the American commander 
to attack at once. Pray that he can. I wrote 
Elizabeth not to let Father know sooner than can 
be helped. You, too, please, don’t tell him before 
to-morrow. Lucy.” 

Colonel Gordon could not find breath to speak. 
As he stood staring at Miss Pearse in horror and 
361 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


amazement, the young nurse cried in an agony of 
longing: 

“ Oh, Colonel Gordon, if only the Allies could 
take the town to-day! The Germans have given 
orders to evacuate the hospitals. They are taking 
out the German patients now, and in another hour 
the rest must follow.” Her voice shook and her 
eyes filled with tears as they met his with a look of 
almost hopeless misery, but in the same moment 
she wiped the tears away and turned back to the 
ward to resume her share of the tremendous task. 

Colonel Gordon stood motionless where she had 
left him. Then, his thoughts a little collected, he 
glanced sharply out into the hurry and movement 
of the ward, where the work of evacuation had be- 
gun. He sprang toward the window once more, 
trying to learn something of the battle’s progress 
amidst the roar of the artillery. A German regi- 
ment was running along the street toward the west, 
making its utmost speed among the impeding stones 
and rubbish. The shells no longer fell near by. 
He could hear them screaming over the town, but 
they fell short of the centre, avoiding the hospitals 
and searching out the German main headquarters 
and supply depot, behind the trenches. He thought 
the two airplanes circling far overhead were ac- 
countable for this change. The sentry had deserted 
the garden to help in the interior of the hospital. 
362 


THE TANKS ARE COMING 


Motor-lorries and ambulances were drawn up out- 
side the doors, and the German wounded had begun 
to be carried out. 

Colonel Gordon entered the ward, and finding 
himself unobserved in the general confusion, went 
out into the garden, and from there to the street 
bej^ond. The regiment had passed, and the street 
was deserted. He glanced back and saw that the 
angle of the hospital wall hid him from the group 
about the ambulances. He drew a long breath and 
began to run in the direction of the firing. 

Not far from the street which Lucy had followed 
to the chateau hill the night before he stopped, 
breathing a little hard after his enforced idleness 
of the past weeks. The chief reason for his pause, 
however, was the change in the noise of the attack 
which became distinguishable to his ears as he drew 
nearer. The rat-tat-tat of machine guns and rifle 
fire was plainly audible in the midst of the bom- 
bardment. It came from his left, the direction of 
the hill. He ran forward again until between the 
houses he could obtain a distant view of the hill- 
side. 

The fog had now lifted from all but the lowlands, 
and at the sight which met his eyes he gave a shout 
of amazement and exultation. All over the hill- 
tops behind the chateau khaki-clad men were ad- 
vancing in skirmish line. Now they ran on a few 

363 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


steps, now dropped to earth or fell back before a 
sudden onset from the enemy concealed in the 
woods in front of them, while the bursting flame 
from machine guns, the volleys of musketry fire, 
and the gaps opening in the thinning ranks an- 
nounced a bitter and desperate struggle. It could 
mean but one thing. The German line still held 
before Chateau-Plessis, but at this, the extreme 
southern point of the tovm, it had been broken by a 
bold surprise. Colonel Gordon stood staring to- 
ward the hill, convincing himself of the truth of 
what he saw. While his heart throbbed with 
triumph, every nerve in his body rebelled at remain- 
ing an idle spectator to that thrilling and unequal 
conflict. Barely two companies of Americans had 
breasted the hill from the swampy land below, and 
they had all they could do to hold their own. At 
that moment he heard the thud of footsteps behind 
him and glanced quickly back. A German in- 
fantry column, making double-time toward the 
front, was debouching from a street on his right. 

The foremost officer gave one look at the uni- 
formed American and sent a shot from his pistol at 
Colonel Gordon’s breast. The bullet whizzed by 
his shoulder, and a second kicked up the dust behind 
him. For he did not wait to furnish a target to the 
German captain. Those shots more than anything 
else added to the strength and ardor of his purpose. 

364 


THE TANKS ARE COMING 


The German thought him a combatant, and a com- 
batant he was from that instant. 

He had slipped around the corner of the church 
at the head of the street leading to the hill. Once 
out of sight of his enemy, who was leading his men 
on too desperate an errand to turn aside in pursuit, 
he ran on until the road sloped upward. The 
American shells had penetrated this far before the 
infantry had advanced to climb the hillside under 
cover of the fog. Right before him gaped a huge 
shell-hole, whose flying earth had partly concealed 
a shattered German machine gun, with the crew 
lying dead beside it. Colonel Gordon bent over 
one of the dead soldiers, seized the pistol from his 
holster and unbuckled his cartridge-belt. In an- 
other second he stood up, no longer unarmed and 
defenseless. With every pulse on Are, though his 
brain remained keen and watchful, he ran on toward 
the hill. 

To skirt its northern side would be to run full 
into the German trenches. Any way was perilous 
enough, but he was thoroughly familiar with the 
ground. It was the same over which he had ad- 
vanced six weeks before to victory. He could not 
linger at the base of the hill either, where bodies of 
troops might be met with at any moment. Just 
now he saw only a straggling group of women and 
children fleeing from a near-by cottage toward the 

365 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


town. He plunged into the wood and began 
mounting the hill among the thick growth of pines, 
while above him increased the hammer of machine- 
gun fire, the rattle of musketry and the shouts of 
furious men. The hillside up which he climbed 
was deserted. The Germans had gone to the de- 
fense of the position by way of the trenches, and, 
though already driven back to seek cover in the 
woods, they had not yet retreated down the slope. 

As he neared the crest. Colonel Gordon crept 
cautiously uj) behind a rock which overhung the 
hillside, and, breathing fast, crouched low to peer 
out from its concealing shelter. Directly in front 
of him, about twenty yards away, gray-clad soldiers 
were falling back in disorder, though firing as they 
retired. In a moment they were almost at the 
rock’s level, and now the Americans burst out from 
the lingering fog wreaths among the pines, pur- 
suing the demoralized foe at the point of the bay- 
onet. Colonel Gordon started up from the ground, 
victory the one thought in his exultant heart. At 
that instant a sharp command rang out from the 
trees on his right. Before it died away a heavy 
rifie-fire was discharged on the flank of the advanc- 
ing Americans, a dozen of whom fell forward in the 
midst of their triumphant charge. He knew in a 
second what had happened. German reinforce- 
ments had crept up by the road which wound about 
366 


THE TANKS ARE COMING 


the hillside. The swift retreat of the Germans de- 
fending the hill was playing into the very hands 
of these newcomers, who had the surprised Amer- 
icans for the moment at their mercy. 

An American soldier, pitching forward as he fell, 
rolled down to the rock close by Colonel Gordon’s 
side. He was already dead. Colonel Gordon saw 
the gaping wound in his temple, and in the same 
glance he read the number on his insignia. These 
men were from his own regiment! In that breath 
of time that he had remained inactive his mind had 
been desperately planning how to make the most of 
the help he could offer. Now he hesitated no 
longer. 

A captain, frantically trying to rally his men to 
withstand the flank attack of twice their own num- 
ber, fell dead in the act of urging on his company. 
Their leader shot down, a murderous fire cutting 
their ranks to pieces, for an instant the men 
wavered. At that moment there appeared in front 
of them the tall figure of an officer, bareheaded, a 
pistol in his upraised hand. There was no time to 
express any of the emotions which seized the sol- 
diers’ bewildered minds at sight of their lost com- 
mander. A bullet struck Colonel Gordon in the 
arm, but he did not feel it. His voice, ringing out 
clear, strong and confident, in the midst of death 
and confusion, cried: 


367 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


“ Forward, men of the 39th! Follow me! ’ 

It was all they needed. What were overwhelm- 
ing odds with that familiar figure leading them to 
victory? A cheer that shook the enemy’s sense of 
easy triumph burst from their panting throats. 
Colonel Gordon was no longer alone, for the whole 
company had sprung to his side. A solid volley 
met the German attack, and then in the face of a 
rain of bullets, the Americans charged. 

The Germans saw that hedge of bayonets rush- 
ing down upon them, and commenced to give way 
a little. Trained fighters as they were they could 
not stand before that onslaught. Leaping down 
the slope, between the trees and over rocks and 
brushwood, the Americans came irresistibly on. 
The Germans, retiring faster now, scowled in sullen 
rage at this enemy who advanced shouting, against 
such withering fire, their eyes aflame with the eager 
light of victory. 

As they neared the foot of the hill the German 
fire had almost ceased. Hand to hand the men of 
the 39th and their enemy continued the bitter 
struggle. Now more Americans had reached the 
hill-cresf from the chateau and, while some re- 
mained to lend aid to those men of the 39th who 
had fought as rear-guard, others came bounding 
down the hill. Their help was welcome, but the 
fight was already won. A hundred survivors of 
368 


THE TANKS ARE COMING 


the two hundred men who had followed Colonel 
Gordon down the hill faced the shattered remnant 
of the German reinforcing column. Those of the 
enemy who managed to escape alive or uncaptured 
fled into the town, through which, at news of the 
broken line, the German troops from the trenches 
in front of Chateau-Plessis could be seen retreat- 
ing in disorder. Two officers, reaching Colonel 
Gordon’s side, seized hold of him and cried in- 
audible words of astonishment and joy through 
the rattle of musketry and the shouts around them. 
But their faces spoke plainly enough. One thing 
Colonel Gordon knew in that glorious moment, 
even before the silencing of the artillery fire con- 
firmed it. Chateau-Plessis was in the hands of the 
Allies. 

The American regiments now poured unimpeded 
down the hillside road, hoping to take the fleeing 
Germans on the flank or rear. A thought struck 
Colonel Gordon in the midst of his joy. To a 
signal officer pausing beside him, the vanguard of 
the new communication lines, he asked hurriedly: 

“ Can we hold the town. Major? It’s a regular 
pocket. How far does our advance extend? ” 

“Can we hold it?” repeated the officer with 
triumph in his voice. “ Colonel, we entered Argen- 
ton an hour ago! ” 

Before passing on he pointed to Colonel Gordon’s 

369 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


left sleeve. It was stained with blood, and the 
elder officer, noticing for the first time his wounded 
arm, found that it hung powerless by his side. 

Lucy and her mother were in the little hospital 
at ^antigny when the news reached them. Lucy 
had been sent there by General Clinton to rest 
after her fatigue of the night before, and it was 
Captain Harding who had instantly sent word to 
Mrs. Gordon. At half -past nine the morning of 
the advance Mrs. Gordon reached Cantigny, and 
ten minutes later Lucy’s arms were around her 
mother’s neck, and all the suffering and anxiety of 
the past two months seemed to slip like a heavy 
burden from her shoulders. She was free and her 
mother was with her — ^no longer to be tormented 
with fears for her safety. After the first happy 
moments all their thoughts turned to Bob and 
Colonel Gordon and to the battle now raging, which 
would decide Chateau-Plessis’ fate. 

They had not long to spend in uncertainty, for 
that morning events moved quickly. Mrs. Gordon 
saw from the window a soldier running up the hos- 
pital steps. 

“ I wonder what news he has, Lucy,” she said, 
her voice shaking with mingled hope and fear. 

The next moment the door of the little room 
opened and a nurse, whose shining eyes and radiant 
370 


THE TANKS ARE COMING 


face spoke plainer than words, ran in and handed 
Mrs. Gordon a folded paper. “A soldier brought 
it,” she explained, darting out again. “ I haven’t 
time to stop.” 

Mrs. Gordon unfolded the paper and together 
she and Lucy devoiu’ed the few pencil-scribbled 
lines; 

“ We have won ! Argenton has fallen. Chateau- 
Plessis follows. R. H.” 

The guns were still thundering a few miles away, 
and at that distance neither Lucy nor her mother 
distinguished the slackening of the fire. They 
could not sit quietly any longer, and, going into the 
wards, they joined in the general rejoicing. 

“ Oh, Lucy, it’s too good to be true! ” Mrs. Gor- 
don exclaimed a dozen times over. “ Now if only 
I can see Bob and Father safe.” 

They went out into the streets of Cantigny, and 
it was in front of the brick house which was the 
Staff Headquarters in the town that Lucy caught 
sight of General Clinton. He was standing by a 
big military automobile, the door of which his aide. 
Lieutenant Wheeler, was holding open. At 
thought of what the General had done for her in 
trusting to Captain Beattie’s plan and ordering the 
advance Lucy’s eyes, as they were raised to his, 
filled up with quick, grateful tears. At that mo- 
ment he turned and saw the young girl watching 

371 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


him. He gave her one sharp glance and leaving 
the car came forward to her side. With a bow to 
Mrs. Gordon he held out his hand. 

“ Shake hands, Lucy Gordon,” he said, his grave 
face lighting with keen satisfaction. “ We’ve won, 
and your brave act made victory possible. Our 
troops occupy Argenton and Chateau-Plessis.” 

As Lucy, too overcome to speak, put her hand 
in his with burning cheeks and wildly beating heart, 
he turned quickly to his aide. 

“Any empty seats in that other car, Wheeler? 
I know this girl and her mother are anxious to 
get to Chateau-Plessis.” 

“ Yes, sir, there is plenty of room,” responded 
the young officer with alacrity. He led the way to 
a second machine while the General stepped into 
his own before Lucy could find words to thank 
him. 

It was almost noon when Lucy and her mother 
entered Chateau-Plessis. The automobiles of Gen- 
eral Clinton’s staff made a slow way among the 
soldiers and civilians crowding the once desolate 
streets in cheering throngs. The poor townspeople 
had robbed their little gardens to shower the vic- 
torious troops with lilacs and roses. Cries of 
friendly greeting filled the air on every side, and 
General Clinton advanced to joyful shouts of '"Vive 
V Amerique! Vive nos liherateurs! ” 

372 


THE TANKS ARE COMING 


A shower of rose petals fell in Lucy’s lap, and, 
gazing about her with wide, unbelieving eyes, she 
caught her breath in a quick sob. Too many feel- 
ings struggled in her heart for any connected 
thought. Most of all she longed to see her father 
and know that he was safe. 

They neared the old town hall, no longer a hos- 
pital since the German evacuation, and bearing 
signs of their rage for destruction in the heaps of 
torn mattresses and broken furniture flung outside 
the doors into the street. American soldiers were 
hurriedly restoring things to order, for the Allies’ 
wounded had been removed to the French hospital 
and here were to be General Clinton’s headquarters 
for the time being. 

Even before they drew up in front of the old 
building Lucy recognized some familiar faces 
among the group of officers gathered in the door- 
way. They had preceded the General from Can- 
tigny to establish his headquarters, and now came 
forward to receive him. A few doctors and nurses, 
too, were among them. Lucy scanned each face 
with eager eyes, for Bob had flown into Chateau- 
Plessis immediately after the German retreat, in 
search of his father, and she and her mother waited 
to hear from him of Colonel Gordon’s safety. 
IMajor Arthur Leslie was standing in the road, 
talking with a young British officer. Lucy’s 
373 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


throbbing heart gave a bound as she saw Captain 
Beattie’s face. The look of cold defiance with 
which he had faced his captors — the bitter melan- 
choly of his days in prison, had utterly vanished, 
and he looked like a happy boy as Arthur Leslie 
clapped him on the shoulder and shook his hands in 
joyful greeting. At that instant Lucy caught 
sight of Bob from behind a little group of men. 
The next, she sprang from the automobile and 
ran across the street. For Colonel Gordon, his 
left arm closely bandaged, was standing at Bob’s 
side. 

Five minutes later, when the Gordons had begun 
to realize the wonderful and happy truth that they 
were reunited. General Clinton made his way from 
among his aides to Colonel Gordon’s side. He 
held out his hand to the wounded officer, glancing 
from one to the other of the faces before him 
with real sympathy in his shrewd, understanding 
eyes. 

“ I congratulate you on your gallant service,” 
he said with simple directness. “ It shall not be 
forgotten. Colonel — or rather General Gordon,” he 
corrected. “ Your son has no doubt told you that 
you were awarded that rank a month ago.” In the 
same breath he turned to Bob with hand out- 
stretched again. ‘‘ You, too, deserve congratula- 
tion — ^more than I can offer you.” 

374 


THE TANKS ARE COMING 


“ What does he mean, Bob? ’’ Lucy whispered,j 
when General Clinton had turned to speak to Mrs. 
Gordon. 

Bob had lost for a moment his dignity, and was 
looking flushed and boyish with so many eyes fixed 
upon him. “ My promotion, I suppose,” he ex- 
plained, a little huskily. “ I’m a captain — or will 
be to-morrow.” 

“ But that’s not all,” interrupted Arthur Leslie, 
smiling at Bob’s confusion. “ He hasn’t told you 
that he is recommended for decoration by both 
French and American commanders.” 

Lucy thought her heart was too full for any 
more emotion, but the next minute she heard Gen- 
eral Clinton saying: 

“We expected your devoted service. General 
Gordon, and your son’s as well. But we had no 
claim on your daughter’s, yet she has given all she 
had of resourcefulness and bravery to the common 
cause. She deserves a reward as much as any 
soldier ! ” 

Lucy could not have spoken a word in the midst 
of her happiness without bursting into childish 
tears. She wanted to explain Captain Beattie’s 
part in her success. More than anything she hoped 
the General understood how complete her reward 
was in seeing honors heaped upon those she loved 
so dearly. 


375 


CAPTAIN LUCr IN FRANCE 


'' He’s right. It’s you who deserve it all,” Bob 
whispered in her ear. 

Unable to stay quietly where she was, with such 
hot cheeks and pounding heart, she edged her way 
toward the door, when an officer had drawn General 
Clinton to one side. 

Out in the street the cool air touched her face 
gratefully. At that moment she thought of Eliza- 
beth, longing to see her again in this trium- 
phant hour. To-day was Lucy’s fifteenth birth- 
day, and Elizabeth, in the midst of their fears 
of the past weeks, had promised Lucy a present, 
in one of her kind efforts to cheer the anxious 
girl from her growing depression. Lucy eagerly 
questioned the people around her, but without 
avail. 

“ There’s not a German left in Chateau-Plessis,” 
Captain Harding told her, when she explained to 
him the object of her search. “ Elizabeth must 
have gone on with the German wounded from the 
hospital. We advanced before they could force our 
own people to go.” 

For a moment a cloud dimmed Lucy’s happiness. 
Was she not to see that faithful friend again after 
those dreadful weeks of captivity? Did Elizabeth 
mean to vanish from Chateau-Plessis, now that her 
work there was ended? Before she could answer 
her own doubts she caught sight of old Clemence, 
376 


THE TANKS ARE COMING 


standing with Michelle at the edge of the little 
crowd. 

Michelle’s eyes were raised to meet her own, and 
Lucy saw that the French girl’s lovely face was 
transfigured, as Captain Beattie’s had been, with 
the glad light of freedom. The look of scornful 
rebellion had left her eyes and the sad curve of her 
lips had changed to a serene smile of happiness. 
Lucy seized both her hands in a clasp that said more 
than the few halting words in which she tried to ex- 
press their rejoicing. 

Michelle had not managed to respond much, 
either, except with her shining eyes, when a wild 
cheer, rising on every side, caused the two girls to 
look quickly around. Caps were snatched off and 
flung in the air; the remaining flowers were pelted 
at the officers in the doorway by children shouting 
themselves hoarse in jubilation. 

All eyes were turned toward the roof of the old 
town hall of Chateau-Plessis. Willing hands had 
raised two poles between the pointed towers, and 
now, from the roof, side by side with the heroic 
Tricolor, there floated the Star-Spangled Banner. 


The Stories in this Series are : 
CAPTAIN LUCY AND LIEUTENANT BOB 
CAPTAIN LUCY IN FRANCE 
CAPTAIN LUCY’S FLYING ACE (in press) 


377 


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